In an earlier post, we provide new WordPress users with a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.
If you would like to learn more about the benefits of using themes and what makes themes so attractive to web site owners, then go here to read the article: A Useful Guide To WordPress Themes
In this blog post, we explain where to browse hundreds of free and paid themes for your site. 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 customer support and poorly-coded themes.
As explained in another post, a WordPress theme is a special kind of web design template used on WordPress-powered websites and blogs and designed to work specifically with the WordPress platform in mind.
Many individual website designers and website development firms create themes for WordPress. Consequently, WordPress users can access thousands of professional WordPress themes designed to cover many website uses.
Finding Great Themes For WordPress: Let’s Keep Things Simple!
If you were to open up Google and type the following:
- best free themes for WordPress
- best paid themes for WordPress
- best paid WordPress themes for authors (or whatever your business, area of interest or website 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, 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 start, you should know that WordPress offers both a hosted and a self-hosted version. We’ll cover these differences in a later post. To keep things simple, please note that we will only cover themes for the self-hosted version of WordPress (WordPress.org) in this post, as these give you more freedom, more options and more control over the design areas of your blog.
Free vs Paid Themes
Next, it’s useful to know that you will easily find many Free and Paid WordPress themes made available. Free themes are normally distributed as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they can be sold as Premium (i.e. paid) themes.
Theme Marketplaces & WordPress Theme Developers
There are two different types of places where you can find themes. The first type of place is in WP theme marketplaces and theme directories. The second are the commercial and independent theme houses.
Theme marketplaces and WP theme directories are large theme stores. WP 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 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 development firms typically will design both free and premium WordPress themes, and can vary in size, from an individual designer or a small team of developer, to large web and theme development companies.
Many commercial theme design houses 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 WordPress theme directories .
Let’s now show you where to search for great WP themes for your website or blog.
Choosing A Great Theme For Your Website Or Blog
WordPress.org
(WordPress.org – WP Theme Directory)
The official WordPress theme directory is the biggest and best place to find WordPress themes for free. In fact, it’s probably the only free directory you should use when looking for free WordPress themes. The reason why, 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 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 site, but it also uses a team of theme reviewers comprised of dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers to review and make sure that each theme uploaded to the directory complies with their quality and security standards.
To browse thousands of professionally-designed FREE WordPress themes from the official Themes Repository, go here:
http://www.wordpress.org/extend/themes
Find Free Themes Inside Your Own WordPress Dashboard
Useful Tip: You can easily browse through every WP 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 inside your WP dashboard with only a few mouse clicks.
Use WordPress 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 blue color 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 choosing “responsive” WordPress themes, we explained how responsive themes ensure that your theme will display without problems across all devices (e.g. your PC, smartphone and tablet) …
You should use responsive themes, and the WordPress theme filtering function lets you do just that …
… 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 you nothing to download and use the theme on your site. Additionally, many free themes are professionally designed and come with a number of built-in customizable features, giving you great flexibility and choice in how you configure all of its various layout elements.
The downside to using free themes are that your themes may not get updated as often with new features and bug fixes, and it’s unrealistic to expect the developer to provide immediate support, especially if they are not getting paid. Most freely distributed themes ask users for donations to help cover costs of providing support.
When downloading free themes, therefore, check to see when the theme was last updated. If it’s been well over 1 year since any updates were made, then it’s best to think carefully 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, 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 premium themes or even on custom web design. Who knows, the theme you downloaded for free could be exactly what works for you and helps to convert your site visitors into customers.
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 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 responsive 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 largest and well known WordPress theme marketplaces online.
ThemeForest allows many professional WordPress theme designers to showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are over 17,500 premium WP themes listed (some starting from as little as $3) …
(click on the images above to see all themes on ThemeForest)
If you visit the ThemeForest theme directory, you will be able to browse for specific WordPress themes in various categories, such as:
- Blog/Magazine – themes for bloggers and political blogs, etc.
- Corporate – themes suitable for corporate sites and advertising purposes.
- Creative – themes suitable for portfolios, freelancers, etc.
- Directory Listings – themes suitable for sites about travel, buy & sell, community resources, etc.
- eCommerce – themes for selling products online, event bookings and registrations, etc.
- Education – themes that suit sites related to teaching, etc.
- Entertainment – themes for fashion blogs, music venues, 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 health products, trades or professionals (plumbers, legal practitioners, etc.)
- Technology – themes related to apps, newsletters, etc.
- Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and marriage counselling blogs
- Miscellaneous – themes suitable for writing or discussing environmental issues, 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 thousands of great themes in the ThemeForest marketplace here:
Creative Market
(click on the images above to view all themes on Creative Market)
Creative Market is another leading WP theme directory where you can browse thousands of 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 browse hundreds of WordPress themes and narrow your search using theme categories (e.g. Portfolio or Popular themes, etc.) from their dropdown “Themes” menu …
Browse through hundreds of great premium themes crafted by independent WP theme designers in the Creative Market theme marketplace here:
Mojo Themes
(click on the images above to view all themes at Mojo.com)
Mojo is a marketplace for premium-quality 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 themes for WordPress and search through their theme categories using the site’s dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …
Visit the site to find great premium WordPress themes in the Mojo directory here:
Now that we have looked at WordPress theme marketplaces, let’s look at commercial and independent WordPress theme stores.
Commercial And Independent WP Theme Stores
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 browse more SoloStream themes)
Woo Themes
Woo Themes creates eye-catching themes for WordPress and offers a membership option that allows you to access their entire WP theme collection.
(click on the above images to browse more themes from WooThemes)
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 designs WordPress themes based on a framework that allows 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 your 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 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 your themes without losing any customizations you 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 theme framework and gives your site its unique design.
If this sounds 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 you pay 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 browse more themes from StudioPress)
WordPress Theme-Checking Tools
To round things up, here are some useful WordPress theme-related tools worth keeping in mind:
What WordPress Theme Is That WP Theme Checker
What WordPress Theme Is That.com is a free web tool that lets you easily detect what WordPress theme a website or blog uses.
This is a great resource if you ever come across a WordPress site that you like and would like to know what WP theme the website or blog is using.
Tip: If you can’t tell if a site runs on WordPress or not, we have posted a a great tutorial that shows you how to tell if a website uses WordPress: The Easy Way To Tell If Your Website Runs On 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 the site has been built using the WP CMS platform, but it will also list the WP theme being used and list any WP plugins it detects.
- To use this online tool go here: What WordPress Theme Is That?
- To learn more about this tool go here: How To Check If A Web Site Was Built With WordPress
Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC)
A word of warning: If you decide to use FREE themes for your WordPress site, we recommend sticking with the themes listed in the official WordPress theme directory.
A method that is commonly used by a number of hackers and syndicates that engage in cyber-crime is to put up websites offering “Free” WordPress 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’s search results for key phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free themes for WordPress”” etc. It’s safer, therefore, to stick with the official WordPress repository, or use well-known and reputable theme merchants.
If you have any concerns about whether a WordPress theme that you have installed on your blog may contain malware or unwanted code, use a free WordPress plugin like Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) to scan your theme files. The plugin searches the source files of every them you have installed on your site for signs of injected code and outputs a report as shown in the screenshot below …
(TAC Report Page – Source: Plugin)
I hope that you have found the information on how to find the best WP useful.
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