Tag: Premium WP Themes

In a separate article, we provide a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.

If you haven’t yet discovered themes and what makes themes unique, then make sure to check out our article here: An Introduction to WordPress Themes

In this article, you will learn where to explore loads of professional 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 experiencing problems like lack of customer support and poorly-coded themes.

As we’ve explained in our previous article, a WordPress theme is a special kind of web design template used on WordPress-driven sites and designed specifically in WordPress.

Many talented website designers and web development agencies create themes for WordPress. Consequently, WordPress users enjoy access to thousands of uniquely-designed WP themes designed for a wide range of purposes.

Where To Find Great Themes For WordPress: Too Much Information … Where To Begin?

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

• best free themes for WordPress
• best paid themes for WordPress
• best paid WordPress themes for writers (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 the search listings.

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 really simple.

WordPress.com vs WordPress.org Themes

Before we get started, you need to know that WordPress offers both a hosted and a self-hosted version. We’ll explain these differences in a later article. To keep things simple, let’s just focus on finding themes for the self-hosted version of WordPress (WordPress.org) in this article, as these give you more freedom, more options and more control over the design areas of your website.

Free vs Paid WordPress Themes

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

Theme Marketplaces And Directories Commercial And Independent WordPress Theme Design Houses

There are mostly 2 kinds of places where themes can be found. The first type of place is in theme marketplaces and WordPress theme directories. The second are the commercial and independent WordPress theme houses.

Theme marketplaces and theme directories are large aggregators of themes. WordPress 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 larger marketplaces 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 WP theme developers can also design both free and premium themes, and can vary in size, from an individual developer or a small team of theme designer, to large theme design companies.

Many commercial theme design firms 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 themes for your blog.

Where To Find A Theme Themes For Your WordPress Website

WordPress.org

(WordPress.org – WP Theme Directory)

The official WordPress.org theme directory is the largest and best place to search for free WP themes. In fact, it’s probably the only free directory you should use when looking for free WP themes. The reason why, is because –as many 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.org directory is not only a trustworthy and reputable place to download themes for your site, but it also uses a review team comprised of dedicated and code-savvy volunteers to review and ensure that each theme in the directory complies with certain quality and security standards.

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

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

Find Themes Inside Your WordPress Dashboard

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

Use The WordPress Theme Feature Filters

WordPress has a built-in 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 easier to find what you are looking for. For example, you could search for themes with predominantly orange colour design, with a 2-column layout and a full-width template, or themes that support custom menus, etc.

Note: in an earlier post where we present an overview of WordPress themes and discuss the importance of choosing “responsive” themes, we explained how these ensure that your theme will display correctly across all devices (e.g. your visitors’ laptops, tablets and smartphones) …

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 costs you nothing to download and use the theme on your site. Additionally, many free themes are professionally designed and offer a number of customizable options, giving you great flexibility and choice in how you configure all of its various layout elements.

The ”cons” 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 will ask you for a donation 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 a year since any updates were last made, then we advise you to think carefully about using it, as WordPress changes quite often and these changes can create conflicts and errors with older code.

If you’re just getting started and your site is still relatively 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 money on premium themes or even on custom web design. Who knows, the free theme you’ve downloaded could be exactly what works for you and for converting your site visitors into customers.

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 requirements, it’s time to turn our attention to premium themes.

Premium WP 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 responsive support, then search through the WordPress theme galleries of the “Premium” theme design agencies listed below:

Theme Marketplaces

ThemeForest

ThemeForest is one of the biggest and well known WP theme marketplaces online.

ThemeForest allows many professional WordPress theme designers to showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are well over 17,500 premium themes to choose from (some starting from as little as $3) …

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

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 personal blogs and environmental blogs, etc.
• Corporate – themes suitable for corporate sites and marketing purposes.
• Creative – themes suitable for design, galleries, etc.
• Directory Listings – themes suitable for sites about employment opportunities, classifieds, community resources, etc.
• eCommerce – themes for online shopping, membership sites, etc.
• Education – themes that suit sites related to tutoring, etc.
• Entertainment – themes for celebrity blogs, restaurants, etc.
• Mobile – e.g. responsive themes.
• NonProfit – themes for nonprofit organizations, charities, etc.
• Real Estate – themes for real estate and real estate listings (e.g. home sales, etc.)
• Retail – themes for boutiques, trades or professionals (repairers, chiropractors, etc.)
• Technology – themes related to technology, newsletters, etc.
• Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and marriage consellor 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 sends you theme update notifications)

Go here to discover great WP themes in the ThemeForest website:

• ThemeForest

Creative Market

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

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 marketplace, but you can easily go through all of their themes for WordPress and narrow your search using theme categories (e.g. Blog or Photography themes, etc.) using their dropdown “Themes” menu …

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

• Creative Market

Mojo Themes

(click on the images above to see all WordPress themes at Mojo.com)

Mojo is a directory 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 go through all of their WP themes and search through their theme categories (e.g. Landing Page or Business themes and theme frameworks, etc.) using the dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …

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

• Mojo Themes

Now that we have looked at WP theme aggregators, let’s turn our attention to commercial and independent theme design houses.

Commercial And Independent Theme Development Firms

SoloStream

SoloStream provides WordPress users with a great selection of high 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 creates great premium themes for WordPress and offer a membership option that allows you to access all themes in their theme collection.

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

StoreFront

StoreFront specializes in creating WordPress themes for e-commerce. 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 StoreFront themes)

StudioPress

StudioPress builds WordPress themes based on a framework (called the “Genesis” framework) that enables users to 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 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 up-to-date to reflect best practices for coding and to ensure that themes are always compatible with the latest WordPress version, but because you can update themes built using the Genesis framework without losing any customizations you 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 framework and gives your site its unique design.

If this sounds too technical, there’s no need to feel concerned 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 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 above images to browse more StudioPress themes)

WordPress Theme-Checking Tools

Here are some useful WP theme-related tools worth keeping in mind:

What WordPress Theme Is That? WP Theme Checker

What WordPress Theme Is That.com is a free WP theme search tool that lets you easily detect what WordPress theme and plugins a site uses (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 theme is being used on the website.

Tip: If you don’t know if a site uses WordPress or not, go here for a great tutorial that shows you how to tell whether or not a website uses WordPress: Is It A WordPress 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 whether or not a site was built using WordPress software, but it will also list the WP theme being used on the site and list any plugins it detects.

• To use this online tool visit the website here: What WordPress Theme Is That
• To learn more about using this tool go here: How To Check If A Site Was Built Using WordPress

Theme Authenticity Checker - Plugin

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 directory.

A well-known method used by a number of hackers and cyber criminals is to put up sites offering “Free” WP 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 come up on Google for key phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free themes for WordPress”” etc. It’s best, therefore, to only download free WP themes from the official WordPress repository, or use established and trusted theme vendors.

If you are in doubt about whether a WordPress theme that you have installed on your blog could contain malicious or unwanted code, use a free WordPress plugin like Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) to scan your WP theme files. The plugin searches the source files of every installed theme on your site for signs of suspicious code and then outputs a report with the results …

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

We hope that you have found this information useful.

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