Tag: WordPress Themes Directory

In a previous 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 WP themes and what makes themes so revolutionary in terms of website design, then go here to read our post: A Useful Guide To WP Themes

In this blog post, we explain where to browse hundreds of free and paid themes for your WordPress website or blog. 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 dealing with problems like lack of product support and poor theme coding.

As explained in another post, a theme is a unique type of web template used on WordPress-powered blogs and designed specifically with WordPress in mind.

Many website designers and website design houses create themes for WordPress. Consequently, WordPress users enjoy access to thousands of great themes designed to cover many purposes.

Finding Great WordPress Themes: Your Time-Saving Guide

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

• best free themes for WordPress
• best paid themes for WordPress
• best paid WordPress themes for writers (or whatever your business, area of interest or website is about)

Chances are that you are going to get an overwhelming amount of disorganized information to sort through in the search results.

So, to help you save time and make things 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 cover these differences in a separate article. For now, we’ll 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 aspects of your blog.

Free vs Paid Themes

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

WordPress Theme Marketplaces And Directories Commercial And Independent Theme Stores

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

WP 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 customers shop for these just like they would if they were shopping for apps on an app store or software directory.

Some of the larger directories 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 vendors can design both free and premium themes, and can vary in size, from an individual developer or a small team of developer, to large web and theme design and development companies.

Most commercial or independent theme companies 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 themes for your website.

Finding Responsive Themes For Your Website Or Blog

WordPress.org

(WordPress.org – Themes Directory)

The official WordPress.org theme directory is the biggest and best place to download WP themes for free. In fact, it’s probably the only free WordPress theme 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 place 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 website, but it also relies on a review team comprised of dedicated and hard working volunteers to review and ensure that each theme listed in the directory meets specific quality and security standards.

To browse thousands of excellent FREE WordPress themes from the official WordPress Themes Directory, go here:

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

You Don’t Even Have To Leave Your WP Dashboard

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

Use The WordPress Theme Filtering

WordPress has a built-in filtering function inside the dashboard 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 a light colour design, with a 2-column layout and a full-width template, or themes that support custom menus, etc.

Note: in another article where we discuss the importance of choosing “responsive” themes, we explained how responsive themes allow your site to be viewed correctly across all devices (e.g. the laptops, tablets and smartphones used by visitors to view your site) …

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 are “responsive” …

Pros & Cons Of Using Free WordPress Themes

The obvious “pro” to using free themes is that it costs nothing to download and use the theme on your site. Additionally, many free themes are professionally designed and come with a number of customizable options, giving you great flexibility and choice in how you configure all of its various layout elements.

The ”cons” 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 urgent support, especially if they are not getting paid. Many freely distributed themes ask users for donations to help cover 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 change was made, then it’s best to think carefully about using it, as the theme may have been abandoned by its developer.

If you’re just getting started and your website or blog is still relatively 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 money on paid themes. Who knows, the free theme you’ve downloaded could be exactly what works for you and for your business.

Now that we’ve seen how to find free themes in the WordPress theme directory and how to narrow down your search for themes that meet specific criteria, it’s time to turn our attention to premium WordPress 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:

WP Theme Directories

ThemeForest

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

ThemeForest allows many professional WordPress theme creators to showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are currently over 15,000 premium WordPress themes to choose from (some starting from as little as $3) …

(click on the images above to browse all ThemeForest themes)

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

• Blog/Magazine – themes for bloggers and e-magazines, etc.
• Corporate – themes suitable for corporate sites or marketing purposes.
• Creative – themes for design, cv and resume writing, etc.
• Directory Listings – themes that suit sites about directory listings, holiday rentals, , etc.
• eCommerce – themes for e-commerce, event bookings and registrations, etc.
• Education – themes that suit sites related to training, etc.
• Entertainment – themes for celebrity 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. rentals, etc.)
• Retail – themes for travel, trades or professionals (plumbers, legal practitioners, etc.)
• Technology – themes related to software, landing pages, etc.
• Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and wedding advice blogs
• Miscellaneous – themes suitable for writing or discussing political 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 emails you theme update notifications)

Browse lots of quality premium themes in the ThemeForest marketplace here:

• ThemeForest

Creative Market

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

Creative Market is another leading WordPress theme marketplace 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 WP themes in its marketplace, but you can easily browse hundreds of themes for WordPress and search through their theme categories using their dropdown “Themes” menu …

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

• Creative Market

Mojo Themes

(click on the images above to browse more themes at Mojo.com)

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 go through all of their WordPress themes and search through their theme categories by using the dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …

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

• Mojo Themes

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

Commercial Theme Development Firms

SoloStream

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

(click on images above to view more themes from SoloStream)

Woo Themes

Woo Themes creates eye-catching themes for WordPress and offer a membership option that gives you access to all themes in their growing WP theme collection.

(click on the images above to see more themes from WooThemes)

StoreFront

StoreFront specializes in creating e-commerce themes for WordPress. Their themes also integrate well with some of the most powerful e-commerce platforms and plugins available.

(click on the above images to browse all StoreFront themes)

StudioPress

StudioPress builds WordPress themes based on a framework (called the “Genesis” framework) that allows you to quickly and easily build a professional and search optimized WordPress website, and provides an auto-updating design architecture, turn-key site designs with beautiful frames for your 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 the framework regularly up-to-date to reflect best coding practices and to ensure that it always remains compatible with the latest WordPress version, but because you can update themes built using the Genesis framework 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 theme framework and gives your site its unique look and feel.

If this all sounds too technical, there’s no need to feel concerned about it. StudioPress themes are 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)

WordPress Theme-Checking Tools

Let’s finish this post with some useful WordPress theme-related tools worth keeping in mind:

What WordPress Theme Is That?

What WordPress Theme Is That? is a free WordPress theme search tool that lets you easily detect what WP theme and plugins a website uses (including parent and child themes).

This is a great resource if you have come across a WordPress site that you like and would like to know what WP theme is being used on the site.

Tip: If you can’t tell whether a site uses WordPress or not, go here for a great tutorial that helps you tell if a web site was built using WordPress: The Easy Way To Tell If Your Website Was Built Using WordPress Software

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 the site has been built using WordPress, but it will also list the WP theme being used by the site and list any WP plugins detected.

• To use the online tool visit the website here: What WordPress Theme Is That?
• To learn more about using this tool go here: Is My Website Built With WordPress? Tell-Tale Signs & WordPress-Checking Tools

Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) – Plugin

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

A strategy that is commonly used by many hackers and syndicates that engage in cyber-crime is to put up websites offering “Free” themes for WordPress all over the web and then distribute themes that contain malicious code. In fact, some of these sites even come up 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 repository, or use well-known and trusted theme vendors.

If you have any concerns about whether a WordPress theme installed on your blog may contain malicious or unwanted code, use a free WordPress plugin like Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) to run a scan of your theme files. The TAC plugin searches the source files of every them you have installed on your site for signs of malicious code and then outputs a report as shown in the screenshot below …

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

I hope that you have found the information on how to find the best free and premium responsive themes for WordPress useful.

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