Tag: WordPress Themes

In a previous post, we provide a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.

If you would like to learn more about WP themes and what makes themes so special, then go here to read our article: An Introduction to WordPress Themes

In this blog post, you will learn where you can explore loads of excellent free and paid themes for your site. 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 how to avoid experiencing problems like lack of support and poorly-coded themes.

As explained in another post, a WordPress theme is a unique type of web design template used on WordPress-driven sites and designed to work specifically with the WordPress platform in mind.

Many skilled web designers and website design houses create themes for WordPress. Consequently, members of the WordPress community enjoy access to thousands of quality WordPress themes covering an extensive range of applications.

Finding Great WordPress Themes: How To Avoid Information Overload

If you were to open up Google and type something like this:

• best responsive themes for WordPress
• WordPress themes free
• best paid WordPress themes for blogs (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 results.

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 should know that WordPress offers both a hosted and a self-hosted version. We’ll explain these differences in another post. 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, as these give you more freedom, more options and more control over your site’s web design.

Free vs Paid Themes

Next, it’s useful to know that you will easily find many Free and Paid WP themes made available. Free themes are normally 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 Marketplaces And Directories & Theme Developers

There are mostly 2 places where you can find themes. The first type of place is in WP theme marketplaces and WordPress theme directories. The second place are the commercial and independent WordPress theme houses.

Theme marketplaces and WP theme directories are big theme stores. WP theme developers (both commercial and independent) list their themes (both free and paid) in the marketplace or directory and customers find these just like they would if they were shopping for apps on an app store or software marketplace.

Some of the bigger 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 development firms can design both free and commercial WP themes, and can vary in size, from an individual designer or a small team of theme designer, to large theme development companies.

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.

Choosing Themes For Your Website Or Blog

WordPress.org

(WordPress.org – Theme Directory)

The official WordPress.org theme directory is the largest and best place to search for WP themes for free. In fact, it’s probably the only free WP theme directory you should use when looking for free WordPress themes. The reason why, 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 … even your entire business at risk.

The WordPress.org directory is not only a trustworthy and reputable place to download themes for your website or blog, but it also relies on a team of theme reviewers to review and ensure that each theme uploaded to the directory meets specific standards of quality and security.

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

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

Find Free Themes Without Leaving Your Own WP Dashboard

Useful Tip: You can easily browse through every 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 dashboard with a couple of clicks.

Use The WP Theme Feature Filters

WordPress has a built-in filtering function inside the admin 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 color design, with a 4-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 these ensure that your theme will work across all devices (e.g. PCs, 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 bring back only WordPress themes that are “responsive” …

Pros & Cons Of Using Free WP Themes

The obvious “pro” to using free themes is that it costs you nothing to download and use the theme. An added plus, is that many free themes are professionally designed and offer a number of built-in customizable settings, giving you great flexibility and choice in how you configure all of its various layout elements.

The ”cons” to 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 personal support, especially if they are not getting paid. Many freely distributed themes will ask you for a donation 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 1 year since any updates were last made, then it’s best to think carefully about downloading it, as WordPress is frequently updated and these changes can create conflicts or errors with older code.

If you’re just getting started and your site is still relatively 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 a theme. Who knows, the theme you downloaded for free could be exactly what works for your site and your business.

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

Premium 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 responsive 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 lets many professional WordPress theme designers showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are over 17,000 premium WordPress themes to choose from (you can find great themes from as little as $3) …

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

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 general blogs and blog magazines, etc.
• Corporate – themes suitable for government sites and marketing purposes.
• Creative – themes suitable for design, ebook authors, etc.
• Directory Listings – themes that suit sites about employment opportunities, holiday rentals, tourism directories, etc.
• eCommerce – themes for e-commerce, membership sites, etc.
• Education – themes that suit sites related to tutoring, etc.
• Entertainment – themes for gossip blogs, cafes, 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. home sales, etc.)
• Retail – themes for catalogs, trades or professionals (repairers, legal practitioners, etc.)
• Technology – themes related to software, newsletters, etc.
• Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and wedding 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)

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

• ThemeForest

Creative Market

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

Creative Market is another leading WP theme marketplace where you can search through thousands of 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 WordPress themes in its marketplace, but you can easily go through all of their themes for WordPress and narrow your search using theme categories using the site’s dropdown “Themes” menu …

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

• Creative Market

Mojo Themes

(click on the above images to view all WP 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 WP themes, but you can easily find WordPress themes and search through their theme categories using the dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …

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

• Mojo

Now that we have looked at WP theme directories, let’s turn our attention to commercial WP theme stores.

Commercial WordPress Theme Design Companies

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 see more SoloStream themes)

Woo Themes

Woo Themes creates great themes and offers a membership option that lets you access their entire theme portfolio.

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

StoreFront

StoreFront creates beautiful 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 images above to view more themes from StoreFront)

StudioPress

StudioPress designs WordPress themes based on a 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 like this framework not only because it’s well-coded and well-supported (the development team at StudioPress keeps the framework consistently updated to reflect best practices for coding and to make sure that themes are always compatible with the latest WordPress version, but because you can update your themes 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 “skins” that sit on top of the theme framework and gives your site its unique design.

If this sounds too technical, don’t worry 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 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 all themes from StudioPress)

WordPress Theme-Checking Tools

To round things up, here are a couple of useful WP theme-related tools worth keeping in mind:

What WordPress Theme Is That

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

This is a great resource if you ever 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 runs on WordPress or not, we have published a a great tutorial that helps you tell whether or not a website uses the WordPress CMS platform: Tell-Tale Signs It’s A WordPress Blog And WP-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 not only confirm whether or not a site is built on WordPress software, but it will also list the WordPress theme being used and list any plugins detected.

• To use this online tool visit the website here: What WordPress Theme Is That
• To learn more about this tool go here: How Can I Tell If My Site Was Built With WordPress?

Theme Authenticity Checker - Plugin

A word of warning: When choosing FREE themes for your WordPress site, we strongly recommend sticking with the approved themes listed in the official WordPress theme directory.

A commonly-used tactic employed by many hacking groups and networks that engage in cyber-crime is to put up sites and directories offering “Free” themes for WordPress all over the web and distribute 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 stick with the official WordPress.org directory, or use well-known and reputable theme merchants.

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

(Theme Authenticity Checker Report Page – Screenshot: WordPress.org Plugin Page)

We hope that you have found this information useful.

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