In an earlier post, we provide a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.
If you haven’t yet discovered WordPress themes and what makes themes so revolutionary in terms of website design, then go here to read our post: An Introduction to WP Themes
In this article, you will learn where you can look for free and paid themes for your WordPress website or blog. 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 how to avoid experiencing problems like lack of customer support and poor coding.
As we’ve explained in our previously-mentioned post, a WordPress theme is a special kind of web design template used on WordPress-powered sites and designed to work specifically with WordPress in mind.
Many professional web designers and website development houses create themes for WordPress. Consequently, WordPress users can access thousands of exciting WP themes designed to cover many purposes and needs.
Finding Themes: Too Much Information … Where To Begin?
Let’s say you were to browse over to Google and type a key phrase like the following:
- best WordPress themes
- best paid WordPress themes
- best responsive WordPress themes for artists (type in whatever your business, search topic or website is about)
Chances are that you are going to get an overwhelming amount of disorganized information to sort through in the search results.
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 WP 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 separate article. For now, please note that we will only cover the topic of finding themes for the self-hosted version of WordPress (WordPress.org) in this article, which gives you more freedom, more options and more control over the design areas of your blog.
Free vs Paid Themes
Next, it’s important to know that you can find thousands of Free and Paid WP themes being made available. Free WP themes are generally distributed as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they will be licensed for use as Premium (i.e. paid) themes.
WordPress Theme Marketplaces vs Theme Developers
There are mostly two different types of places where themes can be found. The first is in WP theme marketplaces and theme directories. The second are the commercial and independent WordPress theme vendors.
WordPress theme marketplaces and WP theme directories are big theme aggregators. WP theme developers (both commercial and independent) list their themes (both free and paid) in the marketplace or directory and visitors shop for 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 developers typically will create both free and paid WordPress themes, and can vary in size, from an individual developer or a small team of theme developer, to large web and theme design companies.
As you will see, many commercial or independent 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 great WordPress themes for your website or blog.
Where To Find A Responsive WordPress Theme For Your Website Or Blog
WordPress.org
(WordPress.org – Themes Directory)
The official WordPress theme directory is the largest and best place to download free WP themes. In fact, it’s probably the only free WordPress 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 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 WordPress site, but it also relies on a review team comprised of dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers to review and ensure that each theme listed in the directory complies with certain standards of quality and security.
To browse thousands of professionally-designed FREE WordPress themes from the official WP 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 theme directory and not only find a great theme for your website or blog, but also easily install and activate it directly from inside your WP admin panel with only a few mouse clicks.
Use WordPress Theme Filters
WordPress provides a 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 orange color design, with a 3-column layout and a full-width template, or themes that support custom menus, etc.
Note: in the article where we discuss the importance of choosing “responsive” WordPress themes, we explained how these ensure that your theme will display correctly on all devices (e.g. the laptops, tablets and smartphones used by visitors to browse your website) …
You should use responsive themes, and the WordPress theme filter lets you do just that …
… and bring back only themes that are “responsive” …
Pros & Cons Of Using Free WP Themes
The obvious “pro” to using free themes is that it costs nothing to download and use the theme. An added plus, is that many free themes are professionally designed and come with 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 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 personal support, especially if they are not getting paid. Many freely distributed themes will ask you for a donation to help cover 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 well over 1 year since any change was made, then we advise you to think carefully about downloading it, as WordPress changes quite often and this can result in conflicts and errors with older code.
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 a paid theme. Who knows, the free theme you’ve downloaded may just be the thing that works for you and your business.
Now that we’ve seen how to find free WP themes in the WordPress theme directory and how to narrow down your search for themes that meet your specific requirements, it’s time to turn our attention to premium WP themes.
Paid 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 Directories
ThemeForest
ThemeForest is one of the biggest and well known WP theme marketplaces online.
ThemeForest allows many professional WP theme developers to showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are over 17,000 premium WordPress themes listed (you can find great themes from as little as $3) …
(click on the above images to see all ThemeForest themes)
If you visit the ThemeForest theme directory, you will be able to browse for specific themes in a range of categories, such as:
- Blog/Magazine – themes for personal blogs and administration sites, etc.
- Corporate – themes suitable for government sites and marketing purposes.
- Creative – themes suitable for visual galleries, cv and resume writing, 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 training, etc.
- Entertainment – themes for film & tv blogs, restaurants, etc.
- Mobile – e.g. mobile-switching themes.
- NonProfit – themes for nonprofit organizations, charities, etc.
- Real Estate – themes for real estate and real estate listings (e.g. rentals, etc.)
- Retail – themes for catalogs, trades or professionals (electricians, dentists, etc.)
- Technology – themes related to technology, affiliate marketing, seo, product reviews, direct sales, etc.
- Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and romance tips and 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)
Browse lots of quality premium WP themes in the ThemeForest themes marketplace here:
Creative Market
(click on the images above to browse more Creative Market themes)
Creative Market is another leading WordPress theme marketplace where you can search through many quality premium WP 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 themes for WordPress and search through their theme categories from the site’s dropdown “Themes” menu …
Browse through hundreds of great premium WP themes crafted by independent WP theme designers in the Creative Market themes directory here:
Mojo Themes
(click on the above images to browse all Mojo themes)
Mojo is a directory for premium-quality 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 go through all of their themes for WordPress and search through their theme categories by selecting the dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …
Visit the site to find great WP themes in the Mojo themes directory here:
Now that we have looked at WP theme marketplaces, let’s turn our attention to commercial theme shops.
Commercial And Independent Theme Agencies
SoloStream
SoloStream provides WordPress users with a great selection of professional quality WP themes and the option of accessing all themes through a WordPress theme membership.
(click on images above to view all SoloStream themes)
Woo Themes
Woo Themes designs functional premium themes that are very popular and highly sought after by website users and offers a membership option that gives you access to all themes in their growing WordPress theme portfolio.
(click on the images above to view all 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 images above to view more StoreFront themes)
StudioPress
StudioPress develops WordPress themes based on a framework that lets users 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 website developers like this framework not only because it’s well-coded and well-supported (the development team at StudioPress keeps this framework regularly up-to-date to reflect best coding practices and to make sure that themes remain always compatible with the latest version of WordPress, 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 themes built using the Genesis framework 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, don’t worry about it. StudioPress themes are very easy to work with, just like all other WordPress themes. The great thing about choosing StudioPress themes 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 see more StudioPress themes)
WordPress Theme-Checking Tools
To round things up, here are a few more useful WP theme-related tools worth knowing about:
What WP Theme Is That WordPress Theme Checker
What WordPress Theme Is That.com is a free online tool that allows you to easily detect what WP theme and plugins a website is using (including parent and child WordPress themes).
This is a great resource if you ever come across a WordPress site that you like and would like to know what WP theme the site is using.
Tip: If you can’t tell whether a site uses WordPress or not, go here for a great tutorial that helps you tell if a website is powered by 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 a site is built on WordPress, but it will also list the WordPress theme being used and list any plugins it detects.
- To use this tool visit the website here: What WordPress Theme Is That?
- To learn how to use this tool go here: The Easy Way To Tell If Your Website Was Built Using The WP CMS Platform
Theme Authenticity Checker - Plugin
We suggested this before and it’s worth repeating again: If you decide to use FREE themes for your WordPress site, we strongly recommend sticking with the reviewed and approved themes listed in the official WordPress theme repository.
A commonly-used tactic employed by many hackers and syndicates that engage in cyber criminal activities is to put up sites and directories offering “Free” themes for WordPress all over the web and distribute modified themes containing malicious code. In fact, some of these sites even come up on search engine results for phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free themes for WordPress”” etc. It’s safer, therefore, to only download free themes from the official WordPress directory, or use well-known and reputable sites.
If you have any concerns about whether a WordPress theme installed on your blog may 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 them you have installed on your site for signs of malicious code and then outputs a report …
(TAC Report Page – Source: Plugin, WordPress.org)
I hope that you have found this information useful.
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