Tag: WordPress Themes Directory

In an earlier article, we provide new WordPress users with a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.

If you would like to learn more about themes and what makes themes unique, then make sure to check out our post here: A Handy Guide To WP Themes

In this article, you will learn where to explore many excellent free and paid themes for your WP website or blog. 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 customer support and poor theme coding.

As explained in another article, a theme is a unique type of web design template used on WordPress-powered websites and blogs and designed specifically on the WP CMS platform.

Many web designers and website development firms create themes for WordPress. Consequently, WordPress users enjoy access to thousands of unique themes covering an extensive range of applications.

Finding Responsive Themes For WordPress: How To Avoid Getting Overwhelmed

If you were to open up Google and search for key phrases like this:

• best free themes for WordPress
• WordPress themes free
• best free WordPress themes for musicians (type in 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 your search listings.

So, to help you save time and make things easier, we’ll just cut through the clutter and make the process of finding great WordPress themes simple.

WordPress.com vs WordPress.org Themes

Before we start, you should know that WordPress offers both a hosted and a self-hosted version. We’ll explain these differences in another post. In this article, please note that we will only be covering the topic of finding 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 of your blog.

Free vs Paid WP Themes

Next, it’s useful to know that you will find thousands of Free and Paid WordPress themes made available. Free themes are generally 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 & Theme Development Firms

There are mostly two kinds of places where you can find themes. The first place is in theme marketplaces and WP theme directories. The second are the commercial and independent WP theme houses.

WP theme marketplaces and WordPress theme directories are big aggregators of themes. 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 marketplace.

Some of the larger theme stores 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 WP theme shops typically will design both free and commercial themes, and can vary in size, from an individual theme designer or a small team of developer, to large web and theme design companies.

As you will see, most commercial 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 directories .

Let’s now show you where to find great WP themes for your blog.

Where To Find The Best Themes For Your Website Or Blog

WordPress.org

(WordPress.org – WordPress Themes Directory)

The official WordPress.org theme directory is the largest and best place to find free WordPress themes. In fact, it’s probably the only free 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 contain malicious code and 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 WP site, but it also uses a review team comprised of dedicated and code-savvy volunteers to review and make sure that each theme uploaded to the directory meets specific standards of quality and security.

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

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

Find WordPress Themes Inside Your Dashboard

Useful Tip: You can easily browse through every WP theme in the WordPress 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 dashboard with only a few clicks.

Use The WP 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 Colours, Layout and Features …

This makes it easier to find themes with specific features. For example, you could search for themes with a dark colour design, with a four-column layout and a full-width template, or themes that support custom menus, etc.

Note: in the article where we discuss the importance of using “responsive” themes, we explained how these ensure that your theme will display without problems on all devices (e.g. your visitors’ computers, smartphones and tablets) …

It’s a good idea to use responsive themes, and the WordPress theme filtering function lets you do just that …

… and display only WP themes that are “responsive” …

Pros & Cons Of Using Free Themes

The obvious “pro” to using free WordPress themes is that it’s free to download and use the theme on your site. An added plus, is that many free themes are professionally designed and offer a number of customizable options, 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 it’s unrealistic to expect the theme developer to provide urgent support, especially if they are not getting paid. Most free themes ask for donations to help cover their support costs.

When downloading free themes, therefore, check to see when the theme was last updated. If it’s been well over one year since any updates were last made, then think twice about downloading it, as WordPress changes quite frequently and new features can result in 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 money on premium themes or even on custom web design. Who knows, the theme you downloaded for free may just be the thing that works for your site and your business.

Now that we’ve seen how to find free WP themes in the WordPress.org theme directory and ways to filter your search for themes that meet specific criteria, it’s time to turn our attention to finding premium WordPress themes.

Premium 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 great support, you can search through the WordPress theme galleries of the “Premium” theme design agencies listed below:

WP Theme Marketplaces

ThemeForest

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

ThemeForest allows many professional WP theme creators to showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are well over 17,000 premium WordPress themes to choose from (some starting from as little as $3) …

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

If you visit the ThemeForest theme marketplace, you will be able to browse for specific WP themes in various categories, such as:

• Blog/Magazine – themes for bloggers and parenting blogs, etc.
• Corporate – themes suitable for corporate sites and advertising purposes.
• Creative – themes for design, arts, etc.
• Directory Listings – themes that suit sites related to directory listings, buy & sell, , etc.
• eCommerce – themes for e-commerce, membership sites, etc.
• Education – themes that suit sites related to teaching, etc.
• Entertainment – themes for celebrity blogs, restaurants, etc.
• Mobile – e.g. retina-ready themes.
• NonProfit – themes for nonprofit organizations, churches, etc.
• Real Estate – themes for real estate and real estate listings (e.g. commercial property, etc.)
• Retail – themes for retail stores, trades or professionals (repairers, chiropractors, etc.)
• Technology – themes related to technology, landing pages, etc.
• Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and romance tips and 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 sends you theme update notifications)

Go here to browse many great WordPress themes in the ThemeForest theme website:

• ThemeForest

Creative Market

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

Creative Market is another leading WordPress theme directory 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 WP themes in its marketplace, but you can easily find themes for WordPress and narrow your search using theme categories (e.g. Landing Page or Popular themes, etc.) from their dropdown “Themes” menu …

Browse through hundreds of great premium WordPress themes crafted by independent WP theme designers in the Creative Market directory here:

• Creative Market

Mojo Themes

(click on the images above to view all themes at Mojo.com)

Mojo is a marketplace 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 narrow your search with theme categories (e.g. Blog or eCommerce themes and theme frameworks, etc.) by selecting the site’s dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …

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

• Mojo Themes

Now that we have looked at WordPress theme aggregators, let’s take a look at commercial WordPress theme stores.

Commercial WordPress Theme Design Houses

SoloStream

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

(click on images above to see all themes from SoloStream)

Woo Themes

Woo Themes creates functional themes for WordPress that are very popular and highly sought after by web users and offer a membership option that gives you access to all themes in their WP theme collection.

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

StoreFront

StoreFront creates amazing 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 see all themes from StoreFront)

StudioPress

StudioPress develops WordPress themes based on a framework (called the “Genesis” framework) that lets users quickly and easily build a professional and search optimized WordPress website, and provides a self-updating design architecture, turn-key designs with beautiful frames for the content and unprecedented control of the framework.

Many web developers prefer using the Genesis framework not only because it’s well-coded and well-supported (the development team at StudioPress keeps this framework regularly up-to-date to reflect best practices for coding and to make sure that it always remains compatible with the latest version of WordPress, 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 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 themes from StudioPress is that you pay just 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 all themes from StudioPress)

Theme-Checking Tools

Here are a few more useful WP theme-related tools worth keeping in mind:

What WP Theme Is That? WordPress Theme Checker

What WordPress Theme Is That? is a free WP theme search tool that lets you easily detect what WP theme a website or blog uses.

This is a great resource if you have come across a WordPress site that you like and would like to know what WordPress theme the website is using.

Tip: If you can’t tell whether a site was built using WordPress or not, go here for a great tutorial that helps you tell whether or not a web site is powered by WordPress: How To Tell If A Website Was Built With 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 built using the WordPress CMS platform, but it will also list the WordPress theme being used on the site and list any WP plugins it detects.

• To use this online tool visit the website here: What WordPress Theme Is That?
• To learn how to use this tool go here: How Can I Check If A Site Was Built With WordPress?

Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC)

We said this before and it’s worth repeating 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 directory.

A commonly-used strategy employed by a number of 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 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 search phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free themes for WordPress”” etc. It’s safer, therefore, to stick with the official WordPress theme repository, or use established and reputable theme merchants.

If you are concerned about whether a WordPress theme installed on your site may contain malware or unwanted code, you can use a free WordPress plugin like Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) to run a scan of your WordPress theme files. The plugin searches the source files of every installed theme on your site for signs of malicious code and then presents you with a report with the results …

(TAC Report Page – Screenshot: Plugin)

We hope that you have found this information useful.

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