In a separate post, we provide a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.
If you haven’t yet discovered WP themes and what makes themes unique, then go here to read the article: An Introduction to WP Themes
In this blog post, we show you where to find loads of great free and paid themes for your website. You will also learn about the different types of WordPress theme resources and get tips on how to ensure that you get the right themes for your needs and avoid having to deal with problems like lack of support and poor theme coding.
As explained in another post, a theme is a unique type of web template that is used on WordPress-driven websites and designed specifically with the WordPress platform in mind.
Many web designers and web development companies create themes for WordPress. Consequently, WordPress users can access thousands of excellent WordPress themes designed for a wide range of website uses.
Where To Find Themes: Your Time-Saving Guide
Let’s say you were to go to Google and type a key phrase like the following:
- best free themes for WordPress
- WordPress themes free
- best free WordPress themes for business (or whatever your business, area of interest or blog is about)
Chances are that you are going to get an overwhelming amount of disorganized information to sort through in the 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 need to know that WordPress offers users both a hosted and a self-hosted version. We’ll explain these differences in a later article. For now, let’s just 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 your site’s web design.
Free vs Paid WP Themes
Next, it’s useful to know that you will easily find many Free and Paid WordPress themes made available. Free WP themes are normally distributed as Free Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they will be sold as Premium (paid) themes.
Theme Directories & Theme Vendors
There are mostly 2 places where themes can be found. The first place is in WordPress theme marketplaces and WP theme directories. The second type of place are the commercial and independent WordPress theme development firms.
WP theme marketplaces and theme directories are big aggregators of themes. WP theme developers (both commercial and independent) list their themes (both free and paid) in the marketplace or directory and visitors search for these just like they would if they were shopping for apps on an app store or software directory.
Some of the larger theme stores 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 theme stores typically will design both free and premium themes, and can vary in size, from an individual developer or a small team of theme developer, to large theme design companies.
Many commercial or independent 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 WordPress themes for your website or blog.
Finding Responsive Themes For Your Website Or Blog
WordPress.org
(WordPress.org – WordPress Themes Directory)
The official WordPress theme directory is the biggest and best place to download free WP themes. In fact, it’s probably the only free directory you should use when looking for free WP 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 and even your entire business at risk.
The WP directory is not only a trustworthy and reputable place to download themes for your website, but it also uses a theme review team comprised of dedicated and hard working volunteers to review and make sure that each theme in the directory meets specific standards of quality and security.
To browse thousands of great-looking FREE WordPress themes from the official Themes Directory, go here:
http://www.wordpress.org/extend/themes
You Don’t Even Have To Leave Your WordPress Dashboard
Useful Tip: You can easily browse through every theme in the WordPress.org theme directory and not only find what you are looking for, but also easily install and activate it directly from within your WordPress dashboard with a couple of clicks.
Use The 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 easy to find themes with specific features. For example, you could search for themes with predominantly gray colour design, with a four-column layout and a full-width template, or themes that support custom menus, etc.
Note: in another article where we present an overview of WordPress themes and discuss the importance of choosing “responsive” WordPress themes, we explained how responsive themes allow your site to be viewed correctly on all devices (e.g. your visitors’ computers, smartphones and tablets) …
You should use responsive themes, and the WordPress theme filtering function lets you search across its entire database of free themes …
… and display only themes that are “responsive” …
Pros & Cons Of Using Free WordPress Themes
The obvious “pro” to using free WP themes is that it’s free 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 ”cons” 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 dedicated support, especially if they are not getting paid. Many freely distributed 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 changes were last made, then we advise you to think twice about using it, as the WordPress software is frequently updated and these changes can result in conflicts or errors with older code.
If you’re just getting started and your website or blog 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 money on paid themes. Who knows, the theme you downloaded for free may just be the thing that works for your site and for your business.
Now that we’ve seen how to find free themes in the WordPress theme directory and ways to filter your search for themes that meet your specific criteria, let’s turn our attention to premium WP themes.
Premium WP 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 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 largest and best-known WP theme directories online.
ThemeForest allows many professional WordPress theme creators to showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are currently over 17,000 premium themes listed (some starting from as little as $3) …
(click on the above images to view all ThemeForest themes)
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 personal blogs and parenting blogs, etc.
- Corporate – themes suitable for medical sites and marketing purposes.
- Creative – themes suitable for video galleries, ebook authors, etc.
- Directory Listings – themes suitable for sites about employment opportunities, dining out & restaurants, social directories, etc.
- eCommerce – themes for e-commerce, event bookings and registrations, etc.
- Education – themes that suit sites related to tutoring, etc.
- Entertainment – themes for fashion blogs, nightlife, etc.
- Mobile – e.g. mobile-switching 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 (plumbers, chiropractors, etc.)
- Technology – themes related to hosting, 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)
Browse lots of great premium themes in the ThemeForest theme directory here:
Creative Market
(click on the above images to see more Creative Market themes)
Creative Market is another leading WordPress theme marketplace where you can search through 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 WordPress themes in its marketplace, but you can easily go through all of their themes for WordPress and search through their theme categories (e.g. Blog or Photography themes, etc.) from the site’s dropdown “Themes” menu …
Browse through hundreds of great themes crafted by independent WordPress theme developers in the Creative Market themes directory here:
Mojo Themes
(click on the above images to browse more themes at Mojo)
Mojo is a directory for premium 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 browse hundreds of themes for WordPress and narrow your search with theme categories by using the site’s dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …
Visit the site to find quality premium themes in the Mojo themes directory here:
Now that we have looked at WP theme marketplaces, let’s turn our attention to commercial theme development firms.
Commercial And Independent Theme Agencies
SoloStream
SoloStream provides WordPress users with a great selection of high quality premium WP 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 great themes for WordPress that are very popular and highly sought after by website users and offer a membership option that gives you access to all themes in their growing theme collection.
(click on the above images to view all WooThemes themes)
StoreFront
StoreFront specializes in creating WP themes for e-commerce. Their 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 site 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 this framework frequently updated to reflect best coding practices and to ensure that themes are always compatible with the latest version of WordPress, 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 “skins” that sit on top of the theme 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 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
Here are a few more useful WordPress theme-related tools worth knowing about:
What WordPress Theme Is That – WordPress Theme And Plugin Search Tool
What WordPress Theme Is That is a free web tool that allows you to easily detect what WordPress theme a website or blog is using (including parent and child WP themes).
This is a great resource if you have come across a WordPress site that you like and would like to know what WordPress theme is being used on the website.
Tip: If you don’t know if a site was built using WordPress or not, go here for a great tutorial that helps you tell if a website 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 then not only confirm whether or not a site is built on the WP CMS platform, but it will also list the theme being used and list any plugins it detects.
- To use this tool go here: What WordPress Theme Is That?
- To learn more about this tool go here: Was My Website Built With WordPress? How To Tell
Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) – WP Plugin
We said this before and it’s worth repeating it again: When choosing FREE themes for your WordPress site, we recommend sticking with the themes listed in the official WordPress theme directory.
A tactic that is commonly used by many hacking groups and networks that engage in cyber-crime is to put up websites and directories offering “Free” themes for WordPress all over the web and distribute modified themes and plugins containing malicious code. In fact, some of these sites even display on Google for search phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free WordPress themes”” etc. It’s safer, therefore, to stick with the official WordPress.org directory, or use established and reputable sites.
If you are concerned about whether a WordPress theme that you have installed on your blog could be infected with malware or unwanted code, use a free WordPress plugin like Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) to scan your theme files. This plugin scans the source files of every them you have installed on your site for signs of suspicious code and presents you with a report …
(Theme Authenticity Checker Report Page – Screenshot Source: Plugin)
I hope that you have found the information on how to find great WP free and paid responsive themes useful.
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