In another article, we have written a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.
If you would like to know more about WordPress themes and what makes themes unique, then go here to read our article: An Introduction to WP Themes
In this article, you will learn where to look 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 support and poorly-coded themes.
As explained in our previously-mentioned article, a theme is a unique kind of web template that is used on WordPress-powered blogs and designed specifically for the WordPress platform.
Many talented website designers and website development agencies create themes for WordPress. Consequently, WordPress users can access thousands of professional WordPress themes designed to cover a wide range of purposes.
Finding Great Responsive Themes For WordPress: Let’s Simplify Things!
If you were to fire up Google and search for key phrases like this:
- best responsive WP themes
- best responsive WordPress themes
- best paid WordPress themes for writers (or whatever your business, area of interest or website is about)
You are probably going to get an overwhelming amount of disorganized information to sort through in your search listings.
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 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 different article. To keep things simple, 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 important to know that there are both Free and Paid themes being made available. Free themes for WordPress are normally distributed as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they will be listed as Premium (paid) themes.
WP Theme Marketplaces And Directories & WordPress Theme Design Companies
There are two kinds of places where you can find themes. The first type of place is in theme marketplaces and theme directories. The second are the commercial and independent WP theme development firms.
WordPress theme marketplaces and theme directories are large theme aggregators. WordPress 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 bigger 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 can also develop both free and commercial WordPress themes, and can vary in size, from an individual developer or a small team of designer, to large web and theme development companies.
As you will see, many commercial 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 find the best WordPress themes for your website.
Finding WP Themes For Your Website Or Blog
WordPress.org
(WordPress.org – WP Themes Directory)
The official WordPress theme directory is the largest and best place to download free WP themes. In fact, it’s probably the only free 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 contain malicious code and place your computer, digital presence and 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 team of theme reviewers comprised of dedicated and hard working volunteers to review and make sure that each theme uploaded to the directory complies with certain quality and security standards.
To browse thousands of excellent FREE WordPress themes from the official Themes Directory, go here:
http://www.wordpress.org/extend/themes
Look For Free WP Themes Inside Your Own WordPress Dashboard
Useful Tip: You can easily browse through every WP theme in the WordPress theme directory and not only find a great theme for your website or blog, but also easily install and activate it directly from within your WordPress admin panel with only a couple of clicks.
Use The WP Theme Filters
WordPress provides a filtering function inside the dashboard area that lets you narrow down your search for themes based on criteria like Colours, Layout and Features …
This makes it easier to find what you are looking for. For example, you could search for themes with a gray colour design, with a 4-column layout and a full-width template, or themes that support custom menus, etc.
Note: in an earlier post where we present an overview of WordPress themes and discuss the importance of using “responsive” WordPress themes, we explained how responsive themes allow your site to be viewed without problems across all devices (e.g. the computers, smartphones and tablets used by visitors to view your web content) …
You should use responsive themes, and the WordPress theme filter lets you do just that …
… and bring back only themes that use “responsive” design standards …
Pros & Cons Of Using Free WP Themes
The obvious “pro” to using free themes is that it’s free to download and use the theme. An added plus, is that many free themes are professionally designed and offer a number of customizable settings, 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 urgent support, especially if they are not getting paid. Most free themes will ask you for a donation 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 more than 1 year since any updates were last made, then think twice about downloading it, as the theme may have been abandoned by its developer.
If you’re just getting started and your website 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. 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 WordPress 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 finding paid themes.
Paid WordPress 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, then search through the WordPress theme galleries of the “Premium” theme design agencies listed below:
WordPress Theme Marketplaces
ThemeForest
ThemeForest is one of the largest and well known WP theme marketplaces online.
ThemeForest allows many professional WP theme developers to showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are over 17,500 premium themes to choose from (you can find great themes from as little as $3) …
(click on the images above to view more themes on ThemeForest)
If you visit the ThemeForest theme directory, you will be able to browse for specific themes in various categories, such as:
- Blog/Magazine – themes for general blogs and activism blogs, etc.
- Corporate – themes suitable for government sites and marketing purposes.
- Creative – themes for design, writers, etc.
- Directory Listings – themes ideal for sites related to directory listings, buy & sell, social directories, etc.
- eCommerce – themes for ecommerce, event bookings and registrations, etc.
- Education – themes that suit sites related to teaching, etc.
- Entertainment – themes for fashion blogs, cafes, 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. commercial property, etc.)
- Retail – themes for health products, trades or professionals (repairers, engineering, etc.)
- Technology – themes related to technology, newsletters, etc.
- Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and romance tips and advice blogs
- Miscellaneous – themes suitable for writing or discussing political issues, 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 emails you theme update notifications)
Go here to discover quality premium themes in the ThemeForest themes marketplace:
Creative Market
(click on the above images to browse all themes on Creative Market)
Creative Market is another leading WP theme marketplace 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 WordPress themes in its marketplace, but you can easily go through all of their themes for WordPress and narrow your search using theme categories (e.g. Landing Page or Commerce themes, etc.) from their dropdown “Themes” menu …
Browse through hundreds of great premium themes crafted by independent WordPress theme designers in the Creative Market marketplace here:
Mojo Themes
(click on the above images to browse more themes at Mojo)
Mojo is a marketplace 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 WP themes, but you can easily browse hundreds of themes for WordPress and narrow your search with theme categories using the dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …
Visit the site to find quality premium themes in the Mojo marketplace here:
Now that we have looked at WordPress theme marketplaces, let’s turn our attention to commercial theme development firms.
Commercial Theme Developers
SoloStream
SoloStream provides WordPress users with a great selection of high quality WP themes and the option of accessing all themes through a WordPress theme membership.
(click on images above to see all SoloStream themes)
Woo Themes
Woo Themes creates functional WordPress themes that are very popular and highly sought after by web users and offer a membership option that lets you access their entire WP theme portfolio.
(click on the images above to view all themes from WooThemes)
StoreFront
StoreFront Themes specializes in 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 images above to browse all StoreFront themes)
StudioPress
StudioPress designs WordPress themes based on a framework (called the “Genesis” framework) that lets you 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 the 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 this framework regularly updated to reflect best practices for coding and to make sure that themes remain always compatible with the latest version of WordPress, 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 StudioPress themes 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 way 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 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 see more StudioPress themes)
WP Theme-Checking Tools
Here are a few more useful WP theme-related tools worth knowing about:
What WordPress Theme Is That?
What WordPress Theme Is That is a free online tool that allows you to easily detect what WP theme and plugins a site is using.
This is a great resource if you have 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 whether a site uses WordPress or not, we have posted a a great tutorial that shows you how to tell whether or not a website is WP-driven: Is It A WordPress Blog?
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, but it will also list the theme being used on the site and list any plugins it detects.
- To use this tool visit the website here: What WordPress Theme Is That?
- To learn how to use this tool go here: How Can I Check If My Website Was Built Using WordPress?
Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC)
We suggested this earlier and it’s worth repeating it again: If you decide to use FREE themes for your WordPress site, we strongly recommend sticking with the approved themes listed in the official WordPress theme repository.
A commonly-used method employed by a number of hacking groups and cyber criminals is to put up sites offering “Free” themes for WordPress all over the web and distribute themes and plugins with malicious code embedded in their files. In fact, some of these sites even come up on Google’s search results for phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free WordPress themes”” etc. It’s safer, therefore, to only download free themes from the official WordPress repository, or use well-known and trusted sites.
If you are concerned 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 run a scan of your WordPress theme files. The TAC plugin searches the source files of every them you have installed on your site for signs of malicious code and outputs a report …
(TAC Report Page – Screenshot Source: Plugin Page, WordPress.org)
We hope that you have found the information on how to find great free and commercial responsive themes for WordPress useful.
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