In a previous article, we provide new WordPress users with 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 website owners, then make sure to check out our post: An Introduction to WP Themes
In this blog post, you will learn where to discover loads of wonderful free and paid themes for your website or blog. 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 how to avoid experiencing problems like lack of customer support and poorly-coded themes.
As we’ve explained in our previously-mentioned post, a theme is a special kind of web design template that is used on WordPress-powered sites and designed specifically with the WordPress content management system in mind.
Many talented website designers and web development agencies create themes for WordPress. Consequently, WordPress users have access to thousands of unique themes covering an extensive range of uses.
Finding Great Great Themes For WordPress: Your Time-Saving Guide
Let’s say you were to launch Google and type the following:
- best free themes for WordPress
- WordPress themes free
- best responsive WordPress themes for writers (enter whatever your business, search topic or blog is about)
You are probably going to get an overwhelming amount of disorganized information to sort through in your 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 WP 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 separate article. To keep things simple, we’ll only be covering 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 of your site.
Free vs Paid WordPress Themes
Next, it’s useful to know that you will easily find many Free and Paid themes made available. Free themes are generally distributed as Free Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they will be sold as Premium (paid) themes.
Theme Marketplaces And Directories Commercial And Independent WP Theme Vendors
There are mostly two different types of places where themes can be found. The first place is in WordPress theme marketplaces and theme directories. The second are the commercial and independent WordPress theme developers.
WordPress theme marketplaces and theme directories are big aggregators of themes. WordPress theme developers (both commercial and independent) list their themes (both free and paid) in the marketplace or directory and visitors find these just like they would if they were shopping for apps on an app store or software directory.
Some of the bigger directories 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 developers typically create both free and commercial WordPress themes, and can vary in size, from an individual developer or a small team of theme designer, to large web and theme design and development companies.
As you will see, 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 find great themes for your blog.
Where To Find The Best Responsive Themes For Your WP Website Or Blog
WordPress.org
(WordPress.org – WordPress Themes Directory)
The official WordPress.org theme directory is the biggest and best place to find free WP themes. 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 many 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 … even your entire business at risk.
The WP theme directory is not only a trustworthy and reputable place to download themes for your site, but it also relies on a theme review team to review and make sure that each theme uploaded to the directory meets certain standards of quality and security.
To browse thousands of excellent FREE WordPress themes from the official Themes Repository, go here:
http://www.wordpress.org/extend/themes
Find Themes Inside Your Dashboard
Useful Tip: You can easily browse through every 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 a couple of mouse clicks.
Use The Theme Filters
WordPress provides a filtering function inside the admin area that lets you narrow down your search for themes based on criteria like Colours, Layout and Features …
This makes it easier to find what you are looking for. For example, you could search for themes with predominantly light colour design, with a 2-column layout and a full-width template, or themes that support custom menus, etc.
Note: in the post where we discuss the importance of using “responsive” WP themes, we explained how responsive themes ensure that your theme will work on all devices (e.g. your visitors’ PCs, tablets and smartphones) …
You should use responsive themes, and the WordPress theme filtering option lets you search across its entire database of free themes …
… and display only WP themes that are “responsive” …
Pros & Cons Of Using Free 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 provide a number of 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 you shouldn’t expect the theme developer to provide personal support, especially if they are not getting paid. Most free 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 changes 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 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 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.org theme directory and ways to narrow down your search for themes that meet your specific requirements, let’s turn our attention to premium WordPress 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 ongoing support, you can search through the WordPress theme galleries of the “Premium” theme design agencies listed below:
Theme Marketplaces And Directories
ThemeForest
ThemeForest is one of the biggest and most popular WordPress theme directories online.
ThemeForest allows many professional WP theme developers to showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are currently over 17,000 premium WordPress themes listed (you can find great themes from as little as $3) …
(click on the images above to browse more themes on ThemeForest)
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 blog magazines, etc.
- Corporate – themes suitable for business sites and marketing purposes.
- Creative – themes for video galleries, galleries, etc.
- Directory Listings – themes that suit sites about directory listings, classifieds, 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 celebrity blogs, nightlife, 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. home sales, etc.)
- Retail – themes for shops, trades or professionals (plumbers, medical centers, etc.)
- Technology – themes related to technology, landing pages, etc.
- Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and wedding 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)
Go here to browse many great WP themes in the ThemeForest website:
Creative Market
(click on the above images to see more themes on Creative Market)
Creative Market is another leading WP theme directory 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 WordPress themes in its directory, but you can easily find WordPress themes and narrow your search using theme categories (e.g. Magazine or Wedding themes, etc.) from the site’s dropdown “Themes” menu …
Browse through hundreds of great themes crafted by independent WP theme designers in the Creative Market themes marketplace here:
Mojo Themes
(click on the images above to view all WordPress themes at Mojo)
Mojo is a marketplace 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 find themes for WordPress and search through their theme categories (e.g. Blog or eCommerce themes and theme frameworks, etc.) by selecting the dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …
Visit the site to find great themes in the Mojo directory here:
Now that we have looked at WP theme aggregators, let’s take a look at commercial theme development firms.
Commercial Theme Shops
SoloStream
SoloStream provides WordPress users with a selection of professional quality premium 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 creates great premium themes and offer a membership option that lets you access their entire theme collection.
(click on the images above to see all WooThemes themes)
StoreFront
StoreFront Themes creates gorgeous 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 all themes from StoreFront)
StudioPress
StudioPress builds WordPress themes based on a framework that allows you to quickly and easily build a professional and search optimized WordPress site, and provides an auto-updating design architecture, turn-key designs with beautiful frames for the content and unprecedented control of the framework.
Many website developers prefer using this 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 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 theme 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 one low price allows 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 more themes from StudioPress)
WP Theme-Checking Tools
Let’s finish this post with a few more useful WordPress theme-related tools worth keeping in mind:
What WordPress Theme Is That?
What WordPress Theme Is That? is a free web tool that allows you to easily detect what WP theme a site is using.
This is a great resource if you ever come across a WordPress site that you like and would like to know what WordPress theme the website or blog uses.
Tip: If you don’t know whether a site uses WordPress or not, we have posted a a great tutorial that shows you how to tell whether or not a website uses the WordPress CMS platform: The Easy Way To Tell If Your Website Was Built Using 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 was built using WordPress software, but it will also list the WordPress theme being used and list any plugins it detects.
- To use this online tool go here: What WordPress Theme Is That
- To learn more about using this tool go here: Tell-Tale Signs It’s A WordPress Web Site And WordPress-Checking Tools
Theme Authenticity Checker - Plugin
A word of warning: When choosing FREE themes for your WordPress site, we highly recommend sticking with the approved themes listed in the official WordPress theme directory.
A tactic that is commonly used by many hackers and networks that engage in cyber-crime is to put up sites offering “Free” WP themes all over the web and then distribute modified themes and plugins containing malicious code. In fact, some of these sites even come up on Google for phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free themes for WordPress”” etc. It’s best, therefore, to only download free WordPress themes from the official WordPress directory, or use well-known and trusted sites.
If you are in doubt about whether a WordPress theme that you have installed on your blog may contain 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 malicious code and outputs a report with the results …
(TAC Report Page – Screenshot: Plugin)
I hope that you have found this information useful.
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now
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