Tag: Premium WP Themes

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

If you haven’t yet discovered WordPress themes and what makes themes unique, then go here to read the post: About WP Themes – A Handy Guide For Business Owners

In this blog post, you will learn where to browse hundreds of free and paid themes for your website or blog. 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 avoid experiencing problems like lack of product support and poorly-coded themes.

As we’ve explained in another article, a theme is a special kind of web design template that is used on WordPress-driven websites and blogs and designed to work specifically in the WP CMS platform.

Many individual website designers and website development houses create themes for WordPress. Consequently, members of the WP community enjoy access to thousands of uniquely-designed themes designed for many website uses.

Finding WP Themes: Let’s Keep It Simple!

Let’s say you were to launch Google and type a key phrase like this:

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

Chances are that you are 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, we’ll 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 need to know that WordPress offers users both a hosted and a self-hosted version. We’ll explain these differences in a different 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 post, which gives you more freedom, more options and more control over the design aspects of your blog.

Free vs Paid Themes

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

Theme Marketplaces And Directories vs WP Theme Design Companies

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

WP theme marketplaces and WP theme directories are big theme stores. WP 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 theme stores 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 WordPress theme development firms typically will design both free and commercial WP themes, and can vary in size, from an individual theme designer or a small team of theme designer, to large theme design companies.

Many commercial or independent theme stores 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 WP theme directories .

Let’s now show you where to find great WordPress themes for your blog.

Choosing Responsive Themes For Your Website Or Blog

WordPress.org

(WordPress.org – Free WP Theme Directory)

The official WordPress theme directory is the largest and best place to search for WP themes for free. In fact, it’s probably the only free WP theme directory you should use when looking for free WordPress themes. The reason for this, is because –as many free software users have learned– 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 WordPress.org directory is not only a trustworthy and reputable place to download themes for your website or blog, but it also relies on a review team to review and ensure that each theme in the directory complies with their standards of quality and security.

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

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

Find Free Themes Without Leaving Your Own WordPress Dashboard

Useful Tip: You can easily browse through every WordPress theme in the WordPress.org 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 WordPress admin panel with only a few clicks.

Use WP Theme Feature Filters

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 easier to find what you are looking for. For example, you could search for themes with predominantly blue colour design, with a 4-column layout and a full-width template, or themes that support custom menus, etc.

Note: in the article 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. computers, tablets and smartphones) …

You should use responsive themes, and the WordPress theme filter lets you do just that …

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

Pros & Cons Of Using Free WordPress Themes

The obvious “pro” to using free themes is that there is no cost to download and use the theme on your site. An added plus, is that many free themes are professionally designed and come with a number of customizable features, giving you great flexibility and choice in how you configure all of its various layout elements.

The ”cons” to using free WordPress themes are that your themes may not get updated as often with new features and bug fixes, and you shouldn’t expect the theme developer to provide urgent support, especially if they are not getting paid. Most freely distributed themes will ask you for a donation to help cover 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 updates were made, then it’s best to think carefully about downloading it, as the WordPress software changes quite often and new features can create conflicts and errors with older code.

If you’re just getting started and your website or blog 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. 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 themes in the WordPress theme directory and ways to narrow down your search for themes that meet specific criteria, it’s time to turn our attention to paid 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 great support, you can search through the WordPress theme galleries of the “Premium” theme design agencies listed below:

WP Theme Marketplaces

ThemeForest

ThemeForest is one of the biggest and most popular theme marketplaces online.

ThemeForest allows many professional WordPress theme creators to showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are well over 17,000 premium themes to choose from (some starting 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 environmental blogs, etc.
• Corporate – themes suitable for legal sites or advertising purposes.
• Creative – themes for video galleries, cv and resume writing, etc.
• Directory Listings – themes that suit sites related to employment opportunities, dining out & restaurants, tourism directories, etc.
• eCommerce – themes for ecommerce, membership sites, etc.
• Education – themes that suit sites related to teaching, etc.
• Entertainment – themes for entertainment blogs, restaurants, 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 travel, trades or professionals (plumbers, legal practitioners, etc.)
• Technology – themes related to hosting, newsletters, etc.
• Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and marriage consellor blogs
• Miscellaneous – themes suitable for topics related to activism, 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 sends you theme update notifications)

Browse lots of great WordPress themes in the ThemeForest theme marketplace here:

• ThemeForest

Creative Market

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

Creative Market is another leading WordPress theme marketplace where you can search through 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 WP themes in its marketplace, but you can easily find WP themes and narrow your search using theme categories (e.g. Minimal or Business themes, etc.) using their dropdown “Themes” menu …

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

• Creative Market

Mojo Themes

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

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 themes for WordPress and narrow your search with theme categories from the dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …

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

• Mojo

Now that we have looked at WordPress theme marketplaces, let’s take a look at commercial WP theme vendors.

Commercial WordPress Theme Agencies

SoloStream

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

(click on above images to see all themes from SoloStream)

Woo Themes

Woo Themes creates stunning themes that are very popular and highly sought after by web users and also offers a membership option that lets you access all themes in their growing theme collection.

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

StoreFront

StoreFront Themes 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 more themes from StoreFront)

StudioPress

StudioPress develops WordPress themes based on a framework (called the “Genesis” framework) that lets you 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 this framework not only because it’s well-coded and well-supported (the development team at StudioPress keeps the framework regularly up-to-date to reflect best practices for coding and to ensure that themes remain 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 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 look and feel.

If this sounds way too technical, don’t worry 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 one low price entitles you 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 browse all themes from StudioPress)

WordPress Theme-Checking Tools

To round things up, here are a few more useful WP theme-related tools worth knowing about:

What WordPress Theme Is That WP Theme Checker

What WordPress Theme Is That? is a free web tool that allows you to easily detect what WordPress theme a website uses.

This is a great resource if you have come across a WordPress site that you like and would like to know what theme is being used on the site.

Tip: If you can’t tell whether a site runs on WordPress or not, go here for a great tutorial that shows you how to tell whether or not a site was built using WordPress: Tell-Tale Signs It’s A WordPress Site And WP-Checking Tools

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 a site is built on the WordPress CMS platform, but it will also list the WordPress theme being used on the site and list any WordPress plugins it detects.

• To use the online tool visit the website here: What WordPress Theme Is That.com
• To learn more about using this tool go here: Tell-Tale Signs It’s A WordPress Blog And WordPress-Checking Tools

Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC)

A word of warning: If you decide to use FREE themes for your WordPress site, we strongly recommend sticking with the themes listed in the official WordPress theme repository.

A well-known strategy used by many hacking groups and cyber criminals is to put up websites and directories offering “Free” WP themes all over the web and distribute 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 phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free WordPress themes”” etc. It’s best, therefore, to only download free WordPress themes from the official WordPress repository, or use established and trusted theme merchants.

If you are in doubt about whether a WordPress theme installed on your blog could be infected with potentially malicious or unwanted code, you can use a free WordPress plugin like Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) to perform a scan of your WordPress theme files. The TAC plugin scans the source files of every installed theme on your site for signs of malicious code and outputs a report …

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

We hope that you have found this information useful.

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