In a previous post, we have written a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.
If you would like to learn more about WordPress themes and what makes WordPress themes unique, then make sure to check out this post: An Introduction to WordPress Themes
In this article, you will learn where to 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 avoid having to deal with problems like lack of product support and poor coding.
As we’ve explained in our previously-mentioned article, a theme is a special kind of web design template used on WordPress-powered websites and blogs and designed specifically in WordPress.
Many professional website designers and web design companies create themes for WordPress. Consequently, WordPress users can access thousands of professional-quality WordPress themes designed to cover many purposes and needs.
Finding Great Themes: So Many Choices … Where To Begin?
If you were to open up Google and search for the following:
- best responsive themes for WordPress
- best premium WordPress themes
- best responsive WordPress themes for writers (type in whatever your business, area of interest or blog is about)
Chances are that you are 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, let’s just cut through the clutter and make the process of finding great WP 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 cover these differences in a later article. For now, please note that we will only be covering the topic of finding themes for the self-hosted version of WordPress (WordPress.org) in this article, which gives you more freedom, more options and more control over the design of your site.
Free vs Paid Themes
Next, it’s useful to know that you will find thousands of Free and Paid WP themes made available. Free WP themes are generally distributed as Free Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they are sold as Premium (paid) themes.
Theme Marketplaces vs Theme Developers
There are two types of places where you can find WordPress themes. The first place is in WordPress theme marketplaces and WordPress theme directories. The second type of place are the commercial and independent WordPress theme houses.
WP theme marketplaces and WordPress theme directories are large aggregators of themes. theme developers (both commercial and independent) list their themes (both free and paid) in the marketplace or directory and buyers shop for these just like they would if they were shopping for apps on an app store or software marketplace.
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 WordPress theme stores can also design both free and paid WP themes, and can vary in size, from an individual developer or a small team of theme designer, to large web and theme design companies.
As you will see, many commercial theme developers 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 WordPress themes for your website or blog.
Where To Find The Best Responsive WordPress Themes For Your Website Or Blog
WordPress.org
(WordPress.org – Theme Directory)
The official WordPress.org theme directory is the biggest and best place to search for WordPress themes for free. 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 some free software users have discovered– downloading free software, add-ons, apps, templates or themes from untrustworthy places can 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 hard working volunteers to review and make sure that each theme listed in 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 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 within your WP dashboard with only a few clicks.
Use The Theme Feature Filter
WordPress provides a 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 a dark color design, with a three-column layout and a full-width template, or themes that support custom menus, etc.
Note: in the post where we discuss the importance of choosing “responsive” WP themes, we explained how these ensure that your theme will display correctly on all devices (e.g. your visitors’ laptops, smartphones and tablets) …
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 find only WP themes that are “responsive” …
Pros & Cons Of Using Free Themes
The obvious “pro” to using free themes is that there is no cost to download and use the theme. Additionally, many free themes are professionally designed and provide a number of built-in customizable settings, giving you great flexibility and choice in how you configure all of its various layout elements.
The downside of using free WP themes are that your themes may not get updated as often with new features and bug fixes, and it’s unrealistic to expect the theme developer to provide dedicated support, especially if they are not getting paid. Many 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 over 1 year since any changes were last made, then you should think carefully about using it, as WordPress is frequently updated and these changes can result in conflicts and 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 or even on custom theme design. Who knows, the theme you downloaded for free may just be the thing that works for you 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 how to narrow down your search for themes that meet specific criteria, let’s turn our attention to finding paid WP 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 great support, then search through the WordPress theme galleries of the “Premium” theme design agencies listed below:
WordPress Theme Marketplaces And Directories
ThemeForest
ThemeForest is one of the biggest and well known WordPress theme marketplaces online.
ThemeForest allows many professional WordPress theme designers to showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are well over 15,000 premium WordPress themes listed (some starting from as little as $3) …
(click on the images above to see more themes on ThemeForest)
If you visit the ThemeForest theme directory, you will be able to browse for specific WP themes in various categories, such as:
- Blog/Magazine – themes for general blogs and green living blogs, etc.
- Corporate – themes suitable for business sites and marketing purposes.
- Creative – themes suitable for creative work, arts, etc.
- Directory Listings – themes suitable for sites about directory listings, classifieds, social directories, etc.
- eCommerce – themes for selling products online, event bookings and registrations, etc.
- Education – themes that suit sites related to teaching, etc.
- Entertainment – themes for film & tv blogs, cafes, etc.
- Mobile – e.g. retina-ready 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 health products, trades or professionals (repairers, 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, green living 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 directory here:
Creative Market
(click on the above images to see all themes on Creative Market)
Creative Market is another leading WordPress theme marketplace where you can search through many quality premium WP 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 find WP themes and narrow your search using theme categories (e.g. Minimal or Popular themes, etc.) from their dropdown “Themes” menu …
Browse through hundreds of quality premium themes crafted by independent WordPress theme designers in the Creative Market directory here:
Mojo Themes
(click on the above images to view all themes at Mojo.com)
Mojo is a directory 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 find WordPress themes and narrow your search with theme categories by choosing the site’s dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …
Visit the site to find quality premium themes in the Mojo theme marketplace here:
Now that we have looked at WP theme marketplaces, let’s take a look at commercial and independent theme vendors.
Commercial Theme Stores
SoloStream
SoloStream provides WordPress users with a great selection of professional quality WordPress 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 stunning themes and offers a membership option that allows you access to their entire theme portfolio.
(click on the images above to view all themes from WooThemes)
StoreFront
StoreFront specializes in creating 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 above images to browse 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 designs with beautiful frames for your content and unprecedented control of the framework.
Many website developers like 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 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 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 all 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 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 view all themes from StudioPress)
WP Theme-Checking Tools
To round things up, here are a couple of useful WP theme-related tools worth knowing about:
What WP Theme Is That WordPress Theme Checker
What WordPress Theme Is That is a free WordPress theme search tool that allows you to easily detect what WordPress theme and plugins a website uses.
This is a great resource if you ever 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 can’t tell if a site runs on WordPress or not, we have posted a a great tutorial that helps you tell if a web site is WordPress-driven: Is Your Website Powered By 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 is powered by WordPress software, but it will also list the theme being used and list any plugins detected.
- To use this tool visit the website here: What WordPress Theme Is That.com
- To learn more about this tool go here: Is It A WordPress Web Site?
Theme Authenticity Checker - WordPress Plugin
A word of warning: When choosing FREE themes for your WordPress site, we highly recommend sticking with the reviewed and approved WordPress themes listed in the official WordPress theme directory.
A commonly-used strategy employed by many hacking groups and networks that engage in cyber-crime is to put up sites offering “Free” WordPress themes all over the web and then distribute modified themes with malicious code embedded in their files. In fact, some of these sites even come up on search engine results for key phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free themes for WordPress”” etc. It’s best, therefore, to only download free themes from the official WordPress.org theme directory, or use established and trusted sites.
If you are in doubt about whether a WordPress theme installed on your blog could contain potentially malicious or unwanted code, use a free WordPress plugin like Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) to scan your WordPress theme files. The TAC plugin scans the source files of every installed theme on your site for signs of injected code and then outputs a report as shown in the screenshot below …
(TAC Report Page – Screenshot: Plugin, WordPress.org)
We hope that you have found the information on how to find the best WordPress free and commercial themes useful.
***
"I love the way your email series "Infinite Web Content Creation Training Series" is documented and presented. It is very absorbing and captivating. The links and tutorials are interesting and educational. This has motivated me to rewrite my content following the concepts I am learning from the email series." - Mani Raju, www.fortuneinewaste.com
***