Tag: WordPress Themes

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

If you would like to learn more about WP themes and what makes themes unique, then go here to read our post: An Overview of WordPress Themes

In this article, we will show you where to search for 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 ensure that you get the right themes for your needs and avoid dealing with problems like lack of product support and poor theme coding.

As we’ve explained in our previously-mentioned article, a theme is a unique type of web design template used on WordPress-powered sites and designed specifically in WordPress.

Many web designers and website design companies create themes for WordPress. Consequently, WordPress users can access thousands of professional WP themes designed for a wide range of purposes.

Finding WP Themes: Too Much Information … Where To Begin?

Let’s say you were to browse over to Google and search for something like the following:

• best free WordPress themes
• WordPress themes free
• best responsive WordPress themes for business (type in whatever your business, search topic or website is about)

Chances are that you are going to get an overwhelming amount of junk to sort through in the 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 WordPress themes really 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 cover these differences in another post. For now, we’ll only be covering 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 WordPress Themes

Next, it’s useful to know that you will easily find many Free and Paid themes being made available. Free themes are normally distributed as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they are made available to users as Premium (paid) themes.

WP Theme Marketplaces And Directories vs Theme Design Houses

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

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

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

Many commercial theme design firms 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 find the best themes for your blog.

Finding A WordPress Theme For Your Website Or Blog

WordPress.org

(WordPress.org – Theme Directory)

The official WordPress theme directory is the biggest and best place to download free WordPress themes. 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 discovered– downloading free software, add-ons, apps, templates or themes from untrustworthy places can put 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 website or blog, but it also relies on a review team comprised of dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers to review and make sure that each theme in the directory meets their quality and security standards.

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

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

Search For Free Themes Without Leaving Your Own WordPress Dashboard

Useful Tip: You can easily browse through every WP theme in the WordPress theme directory and not only find what you are looking for, but also easily install and activate it directly from within your WordPress dashboard with a few mouse clicks.

Use The 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 Colours, Layout and Features …

This makes it easier to find what you are looking for. For example, you could search for themes with predominantly light colour design, with a four-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 ensure that your theme will display correctly on all devices (e.g. laptops, tablets and smartphones) …

It’s a good idea to use responsive themes, and the WordPress theme filtering function 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 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 come with a number of customizable features, giving you great flexibility and choice in how you configure all of its various layout elements.

The downside of using free WP 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 immediate support, especially if they are not getting paid. Most freely distributed themes ask users 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 over 1 year since any changes were last made, then we advise you to think twice about downloading it, as the theme may have been abandoned by its developer.

If you’re just getting started and your website or blog 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 could be exactly what works for you and your business.

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 your specific criteria, let’s turn our attention to premium WordPress themes.

Premium 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 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 biggest and most popular theme marketplaces online.

ThemeForest lets many professional WP theme developers showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are well over 15,000 premium themes to choose from (you can find great themes from as little as $3) …

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

If you visit the ThemeForest theme directory, you will be able to browse for specific WordPress themes in a range of categories, such as:

• Blog/Magazine – themes for personal blogs and news editorials, etc.
• Corporate – themes suitable for corporate sites and advertising purposes.
• Creative – themes for photography, writers, etc.
• Directory Listings – themes ideal for sites about directory listings, holiday rentals, community resources, etc.
• eCommerce – themes for e-commerce, event bookings and registrations, etc.
• Education – themes that suit sites related to tutoring, etc.
• Entertainment – themes for photo gallery blogs, nightlife, 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 (repairers, chiropractors, etc.)
• Technology – themes related to hosting, affiliate marketing, seo, product reviews, direct sales, etc.
• Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and marriage consellor blogs
• Miscellaneous – themes suitable for topics related to activism, 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)

Browse lots of great premium themes in the ThemeForest marketplace here:

• ThemeForest

Creative Market

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

Creative Market is another leading WP theme directory where you can search through many 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 go through all of their WordPress themes and narrow your search using theme categories using the site’s dropdown “Themes” menu …

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

• Creative Market

Mojo Themes

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

Mojo is a marketplace 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 WordPress themes, but you can easily go through all of their themes for WordPress and search through their theme categories by using the site’s dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …

Visit the site to find quality premium WordPress themes in the Mojo marketplace here:

• Mojo

Now that we have looked at WordPress theme directories, let’s turn our attention to commercial and independent theme agencies.

Commercial Theme Stores

SoloStream

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

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

Woo Themes

Woo Themes creates functional themes for WordPress and offer a membership option that lets you access all themes in their growing theme portfolio.

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

StoreFront

StoreFront specializes in 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 StoreFront themes)

StudioPress

StudioPress designs WordPress themes based on a framework that lets you quickly and easily build a professional and search optimized WordPress site, and provides an auto-updating design architecture, turn-key site designs with beautiful frames for your content and unprecedented control of the framework.

Many web developers like this 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 ensure that themes are always compatible with the latest WordPress version, but because you can update themes built using the Genesis framework 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 theme framework and gives your site its unique design.

If this all 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 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 more StudioPress themes)

Theme-Checking Tools

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

What WP Theme Is That – WP Theme Search Tool

What WordPress Theme Is That is a free WP theme and plugin search tool that allows you to easily detect what WordPress theme a website or blog 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 site.

Tip: If you don’t know if a site uses WordPress or not, we have published a a great tutorial that shows you how to tell whether or not a site is WP-driven: How Can I Tell If My Site Was Built Using 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 whether or not the site was built on WordPress software, but it will also list the theme being used on the site and list any WP plugins detected.

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

Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC)

We said this before and it’s worth repeating again: When choosing FREE themes for your WordPress site, we strongly recommend sticking with the reviewed and approved WP themes listed in the official WordPress theme directory.

A commonly-used tactic employed by many hackers and cyber criminals is to put up websites offering “Free” WordPress themes all over the web and then distribute modified themes and plugins containing malicious code. In fact, some of these sites even come up on Google for key phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free themes for WordPress”” etc. It’s best, therefore, to only download free WordPress themes from the official WordPress.org repository, or use well-known and reputable theme merchants.

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

(TAC Report Page – Screenshot: Plugin)

We hope that you have found this information useful.

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