In a separate post, we have written a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.
If you would like to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress themes and what makes WordPress themes so revolutionary in terms of web design, then make sure to check out this post: A Practical Guide To WordPress Themes
In this article, we show you where you can browse hundreds of free and paid themes for your WP website. 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 dealing with problems like lack of support and poor theme coding.
As explained in our previously-mentioned article, a theme is a unique type of web template used on WordPress-driven blogs and designed to work specifically on WordPress.
Many website designers and website development firms create themes for WordPress. Consequently, WordPress users can access thousands of uniquely-designed WP themes designed for many purposes and needs.
Where To Find Great Great Themes For WordPress: Your Time-Saving Guide
Let’s say you were to open up Google and type the following:
- best WordPress themes
- best free themes for WordPress
- best free WordPress themes for artists (type in whatever your business, search topic or blog 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, 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 should know that WordPress offers users both a hosted and a self-hosted version. We’ll cover these differences in another article. To keep things simple, let’s just focus on 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 your web design.
Free vs Paid Themes
Next, it’s useful to know that you can find thousands of Free and Paid themes being made available. Free themes are generally distributed as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they are licensed for use as Premium (paid) themes.
WordPress Theme Directories vs Commercial Theme Developers
There are two different types of places where WordPress themes can be found. The first is in theme marketplaces and WordPress theme directories. The second type of place are the commercial and independent WordPress theme houses.
Theme marketplaces and theme directories are big aggregators of themes. theme developers (both commercial and independent) list their themes (both free and paid) in the marketplace or directory and buyers find 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 WP plugins and templates for other web applications (e.g. Joomla, Drupal, etc.)
Commercial and independent WordPress theme design companies can also create both free and paid themes, and can vary in size, from an individual developer or a small team of theme designer, to large theme design companies.
As you will see, many commercial theme companies 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 great themes for your website.
Finding A Theme Themes For Your WordPress Website
WordPress.org
(WordPress.org – Free WP Theme Directory)
The official WordPress theme directory is the biggest and best place to search for free WP themes. In fact, it’s probably the only free WP theme directory you should use when looking for free WP 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 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 review team comprised of dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers to review and ensure that each theme uploaded to the directory meets specific quality and security standards.
To browse thousands of great-looking FREE WordPress themes from the official WordPress Themes Repository, go here:
http://www.wordpress.org/extend/themes
Find Themes Inside Your WP Dashboard
Useful Tip: You can easily browse through every theme in the WordPress.org directory and not only find a great theme for your website or blog, but also easily install and start using it directly from inside your WordPress dashboard with a couple of mouse clicks.
Use The WP 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 easier to find themes with specific features. For example, you could search for themes with predominantly blue colour design, with a 2-column layout and a full-width template, or themes that support custom menus, etc.
Note: in another post where we present an overview of WordPress themes and discuss the importance of using “responsive” themes, we explained how responsive themes ensure that your theme will display without problems on all devices (e.g. your visitors’ computers, tablets and smartphones) …
It’s a good idea to use responsive themes, and the WordPress theme filtering option lets you search across its entire database of free themes …
… and display only themes that use “responsive” design standards …
Pros & Cons Of Using Free Themes
The obvious “pro” to using free WordPress themes is that there is no cost to download and use the theme on your site. An added plus, is that many free themes are professionally designed and provide a number of customizable settings, giving you great flexibility and choice in how you configure all of its various layout elements.
The downside to using free WordPress 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 urgent support, especially if they are not getting paid. Many freely distributed themes will ask you for a donation to help cover their costs of providing support and updates, bug fixes, etc..
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 last made, then you should think carefully about downloading it, as the WordPress software changes quite often and these changes can create conflicts and errors with older code.
If you’re just getting started and your site 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 premium themes. Who knows, the free theme you’ve downloaded 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 WordPress themes in the WordPress theme directory and ways to narrow down your search for themes that meet specific requirements, let’s turn our attention to finding paid WordPress themes.
Paid 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, then search through the WordPress theme galleries of the “Premium” theme design agencies listed below:
Theme Marketplaces And Directories
ThemeForest
ThemeForest is one of the biggest and best-known WordPress theme marketplaces online.
ThemeForest lets many professional WordPress theme developers showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are well over 15,000 premium themes listed (some starting from as little as $3) …
(click on the images above to browse more 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 general blogs and blog magazines, etc.
- Corporate – themes suitable for government sites or marketing purposes.
- Creative – themes suitable for portfolios, freelancers, etc.
- Directory Listings – themes that suit sites about employment opportunities, classifieds, tourism directories, etc.
- eCommerce – themes for e-commerce, event bookings and registrations, etc.
- Education – themes that suit sites related to tutoring, etc.
- Entertainment – themes for entertainment blogs, dining out, 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, medical practitioners, etc.)
- Technology – themes related to hosting, affiliate marketing, seo, product reviews, direct sales, etc.
- Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and dating 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 sends you theme update notifications)
Browse lots of great themes in the ThemeForest theme marketplace here:
Creative Market
(click on the above images to browse more Creative Market themes)
Creative Market is another leading WordPress theme directory where you can search through 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 WP themes in its marketplace, but you can easily browse hundreds of themes for WordPress and narrow your search using theme categories (e.g. Landing Page 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 marketplace here:
Mojo Themes
(click on the images above to browse more WP themes at Mojo.com)
Mojo is a marketplace for premium-quality 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 find WordPress themes and narrow your search with theme categories by choosing the site’s dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …
Visit the site to find great premium WP themes in the Mojo directory here:
Now that we have looked at WordPress theme aggregators, let’s turn our attention to commercial and independent WordPress theme design companies.
Commercial And Independent Theme Shops
SoloStream
SoloStream provides WordPress users with a great selection of high quality premium themes and the option of accessing all themes through a WordPress theme membership.
(click on above images to view more themes from SoloStream)
Woo Themes
Woo Themes designs great premium themes and offer a membership option that lets you access their entire WordPress theme collection.
(click on the above images to see all WooThemes themes)
StoreFront
StoreFront specializes in 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 view all themes from StoreFront)
StudioPress
StudioPress designs WordPress themes based on a framework (called the “Genesis” framework) that allows users 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 like 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 make sure that themes remain always compatible with the latest WordPress version, but because you can update your themes without losing any customizations you 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 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 easy to work with, just like all other WordPress themes. The great thing about choosing themes from StudioPress 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 above images to see all StudioPress themes)
Theme-Checking Tools
To round things up, here are a few more useful WordPress theme-related tools worth keeping in mind:
What WordPress Theme Is That WordPress Theme Checker
What WordPress Theme Is That is a free online tool that allows you to easily detect what WP theme and plugins a website is using.
This is a great resource if you ever come across a WordPress site that you like and would like to know what WordPress theme the site is using.
Tip: If you don’t know whether a site was built using WordPress or not, go here for a great tutorial that shows you how to tell if a website was built using WordPress: Is My Website Built With WordPress? Tell-Tale Signs & WordPress-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 if the site was built on WordPress software, but it will also list the theme being used and list any WP plugins it detects.
- To use the tool visit the website here: What WordPress Theme Is That?
- To learn more about using this tool go here: Tell-Tale Signs It’s A WordPress Blog And WordPress-Checking Tools
Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) – Plugin
A word of warning: When choosing FREE themes for your WordPress site, we highly recommend sticking with the themes listed in the official WordPress theme directory.
A well-known method used by many hacking groups and syndicates that engage in cyber-crime is to put up sites and directories offering “Free” themes for WordPress all over the web and then distribute modified themes with malicious code embedded in their files. In fact, some of these sites even display on search engine results for phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free themes for WordPress”” etc. It’s safer, therefore, to only download free WP themes from the official WordPress.org directory, or use established and trusted sites.
If you are in doubt about whether a WordPress theme installed on your site could contain malicious or unwanted code, you can use a free WordPress plugin like Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) to scan your theme files. The TAC plugin searches the source files of every installed theme on your site for signs of malicious code and outputs a report as shown in the screenshot below …
(Theme Authenticity Checker Report Page – Screenshot Source: Plugin)
I hope that you have found the information on how to find the best WordPress useful.
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