In an earlier post, we provide new WordPress users with a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.
If you haven’t yet discovered WP themes and what makes WordPress themes so attractive to website owners, then go here to read our article: An Introduction to WP Themes
In this blog post, you will learn where you can search for 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 ensure that you get the right themes for your needs and avoid dealing with problems like lack of customer support and poorly-coded themes.
As we’ve explained in another post, a WordPress theme is a unique kind of web design template that is used on WordPress-powered websites and blogs and designed to work specifically for WordPress.
Many talented website designers and website development agencies create themes for WordPress. Consequently, WordPress users can access thousands of uniquely-designed WP themes covering a wide-range of uses and applications.
Finding Great Themes: Let’s Simplify Things!
If you were to open up Google and search for key phrases like this:
- best free themes for WordPress
- WordPress themes free
- best responsive WordPress themes for blogs (or whatever your business, area of interest or blog is about)
You are probably going to get an overwhelming amount of disorganized information to sort through in the search listings.
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 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 explain these differences in a later article. To keep things simple, we’ll only be covering 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 WP Themes
Next, it’s important to know that you will find thousands of Free and Paid WP themes made available. Free WordPress themes are generally distributed as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they can be made available to users as Premium (i.e. paid) themes.
WP Theme Marketplaces & Theme Stores
There are mostly two places where you can find WP themes. The first is in WordPress theme marketplaces and WordPress theme directories. The second place are the commercial and independent WP theme vendors.
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 search for 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 WordPress plugins and templates for other web applications (e.g. Joomla, Drupal, etc.)
Commercial and independent WP theme design houses typically will create both free and commercial WordPress themes, and can vary in size, from an individual designer or a small team of developer, to large theme design and development companies.
Most commercial or independent theme design houses 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 the best WP themes for your website or blog.
Where To Find A Theme For Your Website Or Blog
WordPress.org
(WordPress.org – Free WordPress Theme Directory)
The official WordPress theme directory is the biggest and best place to find WordPress themes for free. In fact, it’s probably the only free WordPress theme directory you should use when looking for free WordPress themes. The reason for this, is because –as many free software users have discovered– 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 WP directory is not only a trustworthy and reputable place to download themes for your site, but it also relies on a theme review team comprised of dedicated and hard working volunteers to review and ensure that each theme uploaded to the directory meets specific 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
Find WordPress Themes Inside Your WordPress 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 activate it directly from inside your WP dashboard with a few clicks.
Use The WordPress Theme Filtering
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 easy to find what you are looking for. For example, you could search for themes with a orange color design, with a 3-column layout and a full-width template, or themes that support custom menus, etc.
Note: in the article mentioned earlier where we present an overview of WordPress themes and discuss the importance of choosing “responsive” themes, we explained how responsive themes allow your site to be viewed without problems on all devices (e.g. your computer, tablet and smartphone) …
You should use responsive themes, and the WordPress theme filter lets you search across its entire database of free themes …
… and bring up only WP themes that are “responsive” …
Pros & Cons Of Using Free WP Themes
The obvious “pro” to using free themes is that there is no cost to download and use the theme on your site. Additionally, many free themes are professionally designed and come with a number of customizable settings, 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 it’s unrealistic to expect the developer to provide personal support, especially if they are not getting paid. Many 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 more than a year since any change was last made, then think twice about using it, as the theme may have been abandoned by its developer.
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 any money on paid themes or even on custom web design. Who knows, the theme you downloaded for free could be exactly what works for your site and helps to convert your site visitors into customers.
Now that we’ve seen how to find free themes in the WordPress.org theme directory and how to filter your search for themes that meet specific requirements, it’s time to turn our attention to premium themes.
Premium WordPress 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:
WP Theme Marketplaces
ThemeForest
ThemeForest is one of the biggest and well known WP theme directories online.
ThemeForest allows many professional WordPress theme developers to showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are currently over 15,000 premium WP themes to choose from (you can find great themes from as little as $3) …
(click on the above images to browse all ThemeForest themes)
If you visit the ThemeForest theme directory, you will be able to browse for specific WP themes in various categories, such as:
- Blog/Magazine – themes for personal blogs and environmental blogs, etc.
- Corporate – themes suitable for government sites and marketing purposes.
- Creative – themes for photography, crafts, etc.
- Directory Listings – themes ideal for sites related to travel, dining out & restaurants, business directories, etc.
- eCommerce – themes for e-commerce, event bookings and registrations, etc.
- Education – themes that suit sites related to teaching, etc.
- Entertainment – themes for music and bands blogs, restaurants, etc.
- Mobile – e.g. responsive 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 retail stores, trades or professionals (repairers, legal practitioners, etc.)
- Technology – themes related to software, newsletters, etc.
- Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and dating advice 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 emails you theme update notifications)
Go here to discover great themes in the ThemeForest themes directory:
Creative Market
(click on the above images to view more themes on Creative Market)
Creative Market is another leading WP theme marketplace where you can search through many 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 WP themes in its directory, but you can easily browse hundreds of WordPress themes and narrow your search using theme categories from the site’s dropdown “Themes” menu …
Browse through hundreds of great premium WordPress themes crafted by independent WP theme designers in the Creative Market directory here:
Mojo Themes
(click on the above images to view all Mojo themes)
Mojo is a directory for premium 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 find WP themes and search through their theme categories (e.g. Responsive or Business themes and theme frameworks, etc.) by using the site’s dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …
Visit the site to find quality premium themes in the Mojo theme directory here:
Now that we have looked at WordPress theme directories, let’s take a look at commercial and independent WordPress theme agencies.
Commercial Theme Stores
SoloStream
SoloStream provides WordPress users with a great selection of high quality premium WordPress themes and the option of accessing all themes through a WordPress theme membership.
(click on images above to see more SoloStream themes)
Woo Themes
Woo Themes designs eye-catching premium themes and offers a membership option that gives you access to all themes in their growing WP theme collection.
(click on the images above to view more WooThemes themes)
StoreFront
StoreFront specializes in WordPress themes for e-commerce. Their themes also integrate well with some of the most powerful e-commerce platforms and plugins available.
(click on the above images to view more themes from StoreFront)
StudioPress
StudioPress builds WordPress themes based on a 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 website developers like this framework not only because it’s well-coded and well-supported (the development team at StudioPress keeps the framework consistently up-to-date to reflect best coding practices and to make sure that it always remains compatible with the latest version of WordPress, but because you can update themes built using the Genesis framework without losing any customizations you may 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 way too technical, there’s no need to feel concerned about it. StudioPress themes are very 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 images above to browse all StudioPress themes)
Theme-Checking Tools
Here are a few more useful WP theme-related tools worth keeping in mind:
What WordPress Theme Is That? WP Theme Checker
What WordPress Theme Is That? is a free WordPress theme and plugin search tool that allows you to easily detect what WP theme and plugins a website uses (including parent and child themes).
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 website.
Tip: If you don’t know whether a site runs on WordPress or not, go here for a great tutorial that helps you tell if a web site is WP-driven: Was My Website Built Using WordPress? Tell-Tale Signs & 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 then not only confirm whether or not the site is powered by WordPress, but it will also list the WordPress theme being used and list any plugins detected.
- To use the online tool visit the website here: What WordPress Theme Is That?
- To learn more about using this tool go here: How Can I Tell If My Website Was Built Using WordPress?
Theme Authenticity Checker - WP Plugin
A word of warning: If you decide to use FREE themes for your WordPress site, we recommend sticking with the themes listed in the official WordPress theme directory.
A commonly-used strategy employed by a number of hackers and networks that engage in cyber-crime is to put up websites offering “Free” themes for WordPress all over the web and distribute themes containing malicious code. In fact, some of these sites even display on Google for search phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free themes for WordPress”” etc. It’s safer, therefore, to stick with the official WordPress theme directory, or use well-known and reputable theme vendors.
If you are concerned about whether a WordPress theme that you have installed on your blog could contain malware or unwanted code, you can use a free WordPress plugin like Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) to scan your WP theme files. The TAC plugin searches the source files of every installed theme on your site for signs of malicious code and presents you with a report …
(TAC Report Page – Screenshot Source: WordPress.org Plugin Page)
I hope that you have found this information 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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