In a separate 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 themes and what makes WP themes so attractive to web site owners, then go here to read the post: An Introduction to WordPress Themes
In this article, you will learn where to browse hundreds of 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 ensure that you get the right themes for your needs and avoid dealing with problems like lack of customer support and poor coding.
As we’ve explained in another post, a WordPress theme is a unique type of web template that is used on WordPress-powered websites and blogs and designed to work specifically in WordPress.
Many professional web designers and website design houses create themes for WordPress. Consequently, members of the WordPress community can access thousands of quality themes covering an extensive range of uses and applications.
Finding Great WP Themes: Let’s Simplify Things!
If you were to fire up Google and type the following:
- best paid themes for WordPress
- WordPress themes free
- 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 junk 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 WordPress themes really simple.
WordPress.com vs WordPress.org Themes
Before we get started, you should know that WordPress offers both a hosted and a self-hosted version. We’ll cover these differences in another post. To keep things simple, let’s just 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 your web design.
Free vs Paid WordPress Themes
Next, it’s useful to know that typically, you’ll find both Free and Paid themes made available. Free WP themes are generally distributed as Free Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they are sold as Premium (paid) themes.
WP Theme Directories & WP Theme Design Houses
There are two kinds of places where you can find themes. The first is in WordPress theme marketplaces and theme directories. The second are the commercial and independent WP theme developers.
Theme marketplaces and WordPress theme directories are big theme aggregators. 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 bigger 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 theme stores can create both free and commercial WordPress themes, and can vary in size, from an individual theme designer or a small team of developer, to large theme design and development companies.
As you will see, many commercial or independent theme developers 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 WordPress theme directories .
Let’s now show you where to search for the best WordPress themes for your website or blog.
Finding WordPress Themes For Your Website Or Blog
WordPress.org
(WordPress.org – Themes Directory)
The official WordPress theme directory is the largest and best place to download WordPress themes for free. In fact, it’s probably the only free theme directory you should use when looking for free WordPress 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 contain malicious code and place your computer, digital presence and 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 to review and make sure that each theme listed in the directory complies with certain standards of quality and security.
To browse thousands of professionally-designed FREE WordPress themes from the official WordPress Themes Directory, go here:
http://www.wordpress.org/extend/themes
Find Free WP Themes Inside Your Own WordPress 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 start using it directly from within your WP admin panel with just a couple of mouse clicks.
Use Theme 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 what you are looking for. For example, you could search for themes with predominantly orange color 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 using “responsive” themes, we explained how responsive themes allow your site to be viewed correctly across all devices (e.g. your visitors’ laptops, tablets and smartphones) …
It’s a good idea to use responsive themes, and the WordPress theme filtering option lets you do just that …
… and find only themes that use “responsive” design standards …
Pros & Cons Of Using Free Themes
The obvious “pro” to using free themes is that it costs nothing 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 built-in 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 developer to provide immediate support, especially if they are not getting paid. Most free 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 more than a year since any updates were made, then you should think carefully about using it, as the theme may have been abandoned by its developer.
If you’re just getting started and your website 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 any money on a paid theme. Who knows, the theme you downloaded for free may just be the thing that works for you and your business.
Now that we’ve seen how to find free 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 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, you can search through the WordPress theme galleries of the “Premium” theme design agencies listed below:
Theme Marketplaces And Directories
ThemeForest
ThemeForest is one of the largest and well known WordPress theme marketplaces online.
ThemeForest allows many professional WP theme developers to showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are currently over 15,000 premium themes to choose from (some starting from as little as $3) …
(click on the above images to see more themes on ThemeForest)
If you visit the ThemeForest theme marketplace, you will be able to browse for specific WP themes in a range of categories, such as:
- Blog/Magazine – themes for personal blogs and activism blogs, etc.
- Corporate – themes suitable for medical sites and marketing purposes.
- Creative – themes suitable for portfolios, kindle book authors, etc.
- Directory Listings – themes that suit sites about employment opportunities, dining out & restaurants, tourism directories, etc.
- eCommerce – themes for e-commerce, event bookings and registrations, etc.
- Education – themes that suit sites related to teaching, etc.
- Entertainment – themes for photo gallery blogs, music venues, etc.
- Mobile – e.g. retina-ready 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 retail stores, trades or professionals (electricians, medical centers, etc.)
- Technology – themes related to technology, newsletters, etc.
- Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and marriage consellor blogs
- Miscellaneous – themes suitable for writing or discussing environmental 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 sends you theme update notifications)
Go here to find quality premium WordPress themes in the ThemeForest site:
Creative Market
(click on the above images to browse more themes on Creative Market)
Creative Market is another leading WordPress theme marketplace 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 WordPress themes in its marketplace, but you can easily browse hundreds of WordPress themes and search through their theme categories using their dropdown “Themes” menu …
Browse through hundreds of quality premium WordPress themes crafted by independent WordPress theme designers in the Creative Market themes marketplace here:
Mojo Themes
(click on the images above to browse more WP themes at Mojo.com)
Mojo is a directory for premium-quality 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 go through all of their WP themes and search through their theme categories from the site’s dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …
Visit the site to find great WP themes in the Mojo theme marketplace here:
Now that we have looked at WordPress theme directories, let’s turn our attention to commercial and independent WordPress theme shops.
Commercial Theme Design Houses
SoloStream
SoloStream provides WordPress users with a great selection of professional quality premium themes and the option of accessing all themes through a WordPress theme membership.
(click on above images to view all themes from SoloStream)
Woo Themes
Woo Themes creates great themes that are very popular and highly sought after by website users and offers a membership option that allows you to access all themes in their growing WordPress theme portfolio.
(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 view all StoreFront themes)
StudioPress
StudioPress builds WordPress themes based on a framework (called the “Genesis” framework) that enables 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 the Genesis framework not only because it’s well-coded and well-supported (the development team at StudioPress keeps this framework frequently up-to-date to reflect best coding practices and to make sure that themes are always 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 framework and gives your site its unique look and feel.
If this sounds 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 StudioPress themes 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 all StudioPress themes)
WordPress Theme-Checking Tools
Here are some useful WordPress theme-related tools worth keeping in mind:
What WordPress Theme Is That
What WordPress Theme Is That? is a free online tool that lets you easily detect what WP theme and plugins 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 uses WordPress or not, we have posted a a great tutorial that helps you tell if a website is powered by WordPress: How Can I Tell If A Web Site 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 was built using the WP CMS platform, but it will also list the WP theme being used 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: Is My Web Site WordPress?
Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC)
A word of warning: If you decide to use FREE themes for your WordPress site, we recommend sticking with the reviewed and approved WP themes listed in the official WordPress theme repository.
A strategy that is commonly used by many hackers and cyber criminals is to put up websites and directories offering “Free” WordPress themes all over the web and then distribute modified themes and plugins that contain malicious code. In fact, some of these sites even come up on Google’s search results for key phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free WordPress themes”” etc. It’s best, therefore, to only download free WordPress themes from the official WordPress directory, or use well-known and trusted theme vendors.
If you are in doubt about whether a WordPress theme installed on your blog may contain potentially malicious or unwanted code, use a free WordPress plugin like Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) to scan your WordPress theme files. This plugin searches the source files of every installed theme on your site for signs of injected code and presents you with a report as shown in the screenshot below …
(Theme Authenticity Checker Report Page – Screenshot Source: Plugin)
We hope that you have found the information on how to find great free and paid responsive themes for WordPress useful.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)
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