In an earlier article, we have written a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.
If you haven’t yet discovered WP themes and what makes WordPress themes so attractive to website owners, then go here to read the post: A Non-Technical User’s Guide To WP Themes
In this blog post, you will learn where you can browse hundreds of free and paid themes for your website. You will also learn about the different types of WP theme resources and get tips on how to ensure that you get the right themes for your needs and how to avoid having to deal with problems like lack of product support and poorly-coded themes.
As explained in our previous article, a WordPress theme is a unique type of web template that is used on WordPress-driven sites and designed to work specifically with the WP content management system in mind.
Many website designers and web development agencies create themes for WordPress. Consequently, members of the WordPress community can access thousands of exciting themes designed to cover a wide range of purposes.
Finding Themes: So Many Choices … Where To Begin?
If you were to launch Google and search for a key phrase like the following:
- best paid themes for WordPress
- best responsive themes for WordPress
- best free WordPress themes for writers (enter whatever your business, area of interest or blog is about)
You are probably going to get an overwhelming amount of information to sort through in the 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 WordPress themes simple.
WordPress.com vs WordPress.org Themes
Before we get started, you should know that WordPress offers both a hosted and a self-hosted version. We’ll cover these differences in a different article. For now, we’ll only be focusing 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 web design.
Free vs Paid Themes
Next, it’s useful to know that you will easily find many Free and Paid WP themes being made available. Free themes are normally distributed as Free Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they are listed as Premium (paid) themes.
Theme Marketplaces And Directories vs WordPress Theme Design Companies
There are mostly two kinds of places where themes can be found. The first place is in WP theme marketplaces and WP theme directories. The second are the commercial and independent theme vendors.
WP 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 buyers search for these just like they would if they were shopping for apps on an app store or software marketplace.
Some of the bigger theme stores 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 develop both free and commercial WordPress themes, and can vary in size, from an individual designer or a small team of designer, to large web and theme design and development companies.
Many commercial or independent theme developers 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 great themes for your website or blog.
Finding Responsive Themes For Your Website Or Blog
WordPress.org
(WordPress.org – Themes Directory)
The official WordPress theme directory is the largest and best place to find 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 for this, is because –as some free software users have learned– downloading free software, add-ons, apps, templates or themes from untrustworthy places can contain malicious code and place your computer, digital presence and even your entire business at risk.
The WordPress directory is not only a trustworthy and reputable place to download themes for your WordPress site, but it also uses a team of theme reviewers comprised of dedicated and hard working volunteers to review and ensure that each theme uploaded to the directory meets their quality and security standards.
To browse thousands of excellent FREE WordPress themes from the official 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 directory and not only find a great theme for your website or blog, but also easily install and start using it directly from within your WP admin panel with a few mouse clicks.
Use Theme Filtering
WordPress has a built-in 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 themes with specific features. For example, you could search for themes with a orange colour design, with a four-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 allow your site to be viewed correctly across all devices (e.g. the PCs, smartphones and tablets used by visitors to browse your site) …
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 display only themes that use “responsive” design standards …
Pros & Cons Of Using Free WordPress Themes
The obvious “pro” to using free themes is that it’s free 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 built-in 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 you shouldn’t expect the developer to provide immediate 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 1 year since any change was last made, then it’s best to think twice about downloading it, as the theme may have been abandoned by its developer.
If you’re just getting started and your website 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 money on premium themes or even on custom web design. Who knows, the theme you downloaded for free could be exactly what 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 filter your search for themes that meet your specific criteria, it’s time to turn our attention to premium WP 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 great 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 best-known theme directories online.
ThemeForest lets many professional WordPress theme developers showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are over 15,000 premium themes to choose from (you can find great themes from as little as $3) …
(click on the images above to view more 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 general blogs and blog magazines, etc.
- Corporate – themes suitable for government sites and marketing purposes.
- Creative – themes for portfolios, writing professionals, etc.
- Directory Listings – themes ideal for sites about directory listings, dining out & restaurants, , etc.
- eCommerce – themes for ecommerce, membership sites, etc.
- Education – themes that suit sites related to tutoring, etc.
- Entertainment – themes for film & tv blogs, nightlife, 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 retail stores, trades or professionals (plumbers, medical practitioners, etc.)
- Technology – themes related to software, newsletters, etc.
- Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and romance tips and advice blogs
- Miscellaneous – themes suitable for topics related to activism, 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 thousands of great WordPress themes in the ThemeForest themes marketplace here:
Creative Market
(click on the images above to view more Creative Market themes)
Creative Market is another leading WP theme marketplace 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 directory, but you can easily browse hundreds of themes for WordPress and narrow your search using theme categories using the site’s dropdown “Themes” menu …
Browse through hundreds of quality premium WP themes crafted by independent WordPress theme designers in the Creative Market themes marketplace here:
Mojo Themes
(click on the above images to view all themes at Mojo)
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 WP themes and search through their theme categories (e.g. Blog 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 theme directory here:
Now that we have looked at WordPress theme marketplaces, let’s take a look at commercial WP theme stores.
Commercial WP Theme Stores
SoloStream
SoloStream provides WordPress users with a selection of professional quality WP themes and the option of accessing all themes through a WordPress theme membership.
(click on above images to browse more SoloStream themes)
Woo Themes
Woo Themes designs stunning premium themes for WordPress that are very popular and highly sought after by web users and offers a membership option that allows members access to all themes in their theme collection.
(click on the images above to browse more themes from WooThemes)
StoreFront
StoreFront specializes in creating 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 lets you 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 prefer using the Genesis framework not only because it’s well-coded and well-supported (the development team at StudioPress keeps the framework consistently up-to-date to reflect best coding practices and to make sure that it always remains compatible with the latest version of WordPress, 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 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 StudioPress themes 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 images above to see more StudioPress themes)
Theme-Checking Tools
Let’s finish this article with some useful WordPress theme-related tools worth knowing about:
What WordPress Theme Is That – WordPress Theme And Plugin Search Tool
What WordPress Theme Is That.com is a free WP theme and plugin-checking tool that lets you easily detect what WordPress theme a website or blog is using (including parent and child 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 is being used on the website.
Tip: If you can’t tell if a site uses WordPress or not, go here for a great tutorial that shows you how to tell if a site is WordPress-driven: The Easy Way To Tell If Your Web Site Runs On WP Software
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 whether or not the site has been built using the WP CMS platform, but it will also list the WordPress theme being used and list any WordPress plugins detected.
- To use the tool go here: What WordPress Theme Is That.com
- To learn more about this tool go here: Tell-Tale Signs It’s A WordPress Site And WordPress-Checking Tools
Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC)
A word of warning: If you decide to use FREE themes for your WordPress site, we recommend sticking with the approved themes listed in the official WordPress theme repository.
A method that is commonly used by many hacking groups and networks that engage in cyber criminal activities is to put up websites and directories offering “Free” WordPress themes all over the web and distribute modified themes and plugins with malicious code embedded in their files. In fact, some of these sites even display on Google’s search results for key phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free WordPress themes”” etc. It’s best, therefore, to stick with the official WordPress repository, or use well-known and reputable theme download sites.
If you are concerned about whether a WordPress theme installed on your site may contain potentially malicious or unwanted code, you can use a free WordPress plugin like Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) to perform a scan of your theme files. This plugin scans the source files of every them you have installed on your site for signs of malicious code and then presents you with a report as shown in the screenshot below …
(Theme Authenticity Checker Report Page – Source: WordPress.org Plugin Site)
We 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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