Tag: Premium WP Themes

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

If you would like to know more about themes and what makes themes unique, then go here to read the article: A Basic Guide To WordPress Themes

In this blog post, we explain where you can search for 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 customer support and poor coding.

As explained in our previously-mentioned post, a WordPress theme is a unique type of web design template used on WordPress-driven sites and designed specifically with WordPress in mind.

Many talented website designers and web development firms create themes for WordPress. Consequently, WordPress users enjoy access to thousands of quality themes covering a wide-range of uses and applications.

Where To Find WP Themes: How To Avoid Information Overload

Let’s say you were to fire up Google and type the following:

• best themes for WordPress
• WordPress themes free
• best responsive WordPress themes for musicians (type in whatever your business, search topic or website 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 your life easier, we’ll just cut through the clutter and make the process of finding great WP themes really simple.

WordPress.com vs WordPress.org Themes

Before we start, you need to know that WordPress offers users both a hosted and a self-hosted version. We’ll cover these differences in another post. To keep things simple, we’ll only cover themes for the self-hosted version of WordPress (WordPress.org) in this article, which gives you more freedom, more options and more control over your web design.

Free vs Paid WP Themes

Next, it’s useful to know that there are both Free and Paid WordPress themes made available. Free themes for WordPress are normally distributed as Free Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they can be made available to users as Premium (paid) themes.

WP Theme Directories vs WordPress Theme Design Houses

There are mostly two places where you can find WP themes. The first 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 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 stores typically will create both free and premium WordPress themes, and can vary in size, from an individual developer or a small team of developer, to large theme development companies.

Most commercial or independent theme design firms 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 directories .

Let’s now show you where to search for the best themes for your website.

Finding A Great Theme Themes For Your Website Or Blog

WordPress.org

(WordPress.org – Themes Directory)

The official WordPress.org theme directory is the largest and best place to download free WP themes. In fact, it’s probably the only free theme directory you should use when looking for free WP themes. The reason for this, is because –as some 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 WordPress theme directory is not only a trustworthy and reputable place to download themes for your site, but it also uses a review team to review and make sure that each theme uploaded to the directory meets their 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

Find WP Themes Inside Your Dashboard

Useful Tip: You can easily browse through every theme in the WordPress directory and not only find what you are looking for, but also easily install and activate it directly from within your WordPress dashboard with just a few mouse clicks.

Use Theme 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 Colours, Layout and Features …

This makes it easy to find themes with specific features. For example, you could search for themes with a pink colour design, with a four-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” WordPress themes, we explained how these ensure that your theme will display without problems on all devices (e.g. the computers, tablets and smartphones used by visitors to browse your web content) …

It’s a good idea to 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 WordPress 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. Many free themes will ask you for a donation to help cover their costs of providing support.

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 we advise you to think carefully 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, 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 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 narrow down your search for themes that meet specific requirements, it’s time to turn our attention to premium 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:

WP Theme Marketplaces And Directories

ThemeForest

ThemeForest is one of the largest and best-known WP theme marketplaces online.

ThemeForest lets many professional WP theme designers showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are well over 17,500 premium themes listed (you can find great themes from as little as $3) …

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

If you visit the ThemeForest theme directory, you will be able to browse for specific WordPress themes in a range of categories, such as:

• Blog/Magazine – themes for bloggers and parenting blogs, etc.
• Corporate – themes suitable for business sites or advertising purposes.
• Creative – themes for photography, writing professionals, etc.
• Directory Listings – themes suitable for sites about travel, dining out & restaurants, , etc.
• eCommerce – themes for ecommerce, event bookings and registrations, etc.
• Education – themes that suit sites related to training, etc.
• Entertainment – themes for celebrity blogs, restaurants, etc.
• Mobile – e.g. retina-ready themes.
• NonProfit – themes for nonprofit organizations, churches, etc.
• Real Estate – themes for real estate and real estate listings (e.g. commercial property, etc.)
• Retail – themes for specialty stores, trades or professionals (repairers, dental practitioners, etc.)
• Technology – themes related to software, landing pages, etc.
• Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and marriage celebrant 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)

Browse lots of great themes in the ThemeForest themes directory here:

• ThemeForest

Creative Market

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

Creative Market is another leading WP theme directory where you can browse 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 go through all of their themes for WordPress and narrow your search using theme categories (e.g. Minimal or Popular themes, etc.) from the site’s dropdown “Themes” menu …

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

• Creative Market

Mojo Themes

(click on the images above to browse all 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 narrow your search with theme categories (e.g. Blog or Business themes and theme frameworks, etc.) by using the site’s dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …

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

• Mojo

Now that we have looked at WP theme aggregators, let’s look at commercial theme developers.

Commercial WordPress Theme Developers

SoloStream

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

(click on images above to see more SoloStream themes)

Woo Themes

Woo Themes designs stunning themes and offer a membership option that gives you access to their entire theme portfolio.

(click on the images above to browse all themes from WooThemes)

StoreFront

StoreFront creates amazing 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 images above to see more StoreFront themes)

StudioPress

StudioPress builds WordPress themes based on a framework that allows users to quickly and easily build a professional and search optimized WordPress site, and provides an auto-updating design architecture, turn-key site designs with beautiful frames for the content and unprecedented control of the framework.

Many web developers prefer using this framework not only because it’s well-coded and well-supported (the development team at StudioPress keeps this framework frequently up-to-date to reflect best practices for coding and to ensure that it always remains compatible with the latest version of WordPress, but because you can update your themes without losing any customizations you may have made to your theme.

This is because themes built with 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 all sounds way 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 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 view more themes from StudioPress)

Theme-Checking Tools

Let’s finish this post with a few more useful WP theme-related tools worth keeping in mind:

What WordPress Theme Is That – WordPress Theme Search Tool

What WordPress Theme Is That is a free WP theme and plugin-checking tool that allows you to easily detect what WordPress theme and plugins a site 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 theme is being used on the website.

Tip: If you don’t know if a site runs on WordPress or not, go here for a great tutorial that helps you tell whether or not a site is WordPress-driven: Is My Website 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 whether or not a site is powered by WordPress software, but it will also list the WordPress theme being used on the site and list any WP plugins it detects.

• To use the tool go here: What WordPress Theme Is That?
• To learn how to use this tool go here: Does My Web Site Run On WordPress?

Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) – Plugin

We said this before and it’s worth repeating it again: When choosing FREE themes for your WordPress site, we strongly recommend sticking with the reviewed and approved WP themes listed in the official WordPress theme repository.

A well-known method used by a number of hacking groups and networks that engage in cyber-crime is to put up websites offering “Free” WP themes all over the web and distribute themes with malicious code embedded in their files. In fact, some of these sites even display on Google for phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free WordPress themes”” etc. It’s best, therefore, to only download free themes from the official WordPress.org directory, or use well-known and reputable theme download sites.

If you have any concerns about whether a WordPress theme that you have installed on your site may contain potentially 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 presents you with a report …

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

I hope that you have found this information useful.

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