In a previous post, we provide new WordPress users with a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.
If you would like to know more about themes and what makes WordPress themes unique, then go here to read our post: Understanding WordPress Themes – A Guide For Business Owners
In this blog post, we show you where you can browse hundreds of free and paid themes for your WordPress site. You will also learn about the different types of WordPress theme resources and get tips on how to make sure that you get the right themes for your needs and avoid experiencing problems like lack of product support and poorly-coded themes.
As explained in another article, a theme is a unique type of web design template used on WordPress-driven websites and designed specifically with the WordPress content management system in mind.
Many website designers and web design houses create themes for WordPress. Consequently, members of the WordPress community can access thousands of exciting WordPress themes designed for a wide range of purposes.
Where To Find Great Themes: Your Time-Saving Guide
Let’s say you were to go to Google and search for the following:
- best paid WP themes
- WordPress themes free
- best paid WordPress themes for blogs (enter whatever your business, search topic or blog is about)
Chances are that you are going to get an overwhelming amount of information to sort through in your search results.
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 simple.
WordPress.com vs WordPress.org Themes
Before we get started, you need to know that WordPress offers both a hosted and a self-hosted version. We’ll cover these differences in a separate post. To keep things simple, we’ll only be focusing on 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 the design areas of your website.
Free vs Paid WP Themes
Next, it’s useful to know that you will find thousands of Free and Paid themes made available. Free 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 Commercial And Independent WordPress Theme Design Companies
There are mostly two different types of places where you can find WP themes. The first is in theme marketplaces and theme directories. The second place are the commercial and independent theme houses.
Theme marketplaces and WP theme directories are large theme stores. WordPress theme developers (both commercial and independent) list their themes (both free and paid) in the marketplace or directory and buyers shop for these just like they would if they were shopping for apps on an app store or software marketplace.
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 WordPress theme development firms can also design both free and paid WP themes, and can vary in size, from an individual designer or a small team of designer, to large web and theme design and development companies.
Many commercial theme stores 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 WP theme directories .
Let’s now show you where to find great WordPress themes for your website.
Choosing A WP Theme For Your Website Or Blog
WordPress.org
(WordPress.org – Theme 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 WP theme directory you should use when looking for free WordPress 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 place your computer, digital presence and even your entire business at risk.
The WP directory is not only a trustworthy and reputable place to download themes for your WordPress site, but it also uses a review team comprised of dedicated and hard working volunteers to review and make sure that each theme in the directory complies with specific quality and security standards.
To browse thousands of excellent FREE WordPress themes from the official WordPress Themes Directory, go here:
http://www.wordpress.org/extend/themes
Find WP Themes Inside Your 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 activate it directly from within your WordPress admin panel with a couple of clicks.
Use The Theme Filters
WordPress provides a filtering function inside the admin area that lets you narrow down your search for themes based on criteria like Colors, Layout and Features …
This makes it easy to find themes with specific features. For example, you could search for themes with a pink colour design, with a 3-column layout and a full-width template, or themes that support custom menus, etc.
Note: in the post where we discuss the importance of choosing “responsive” themes, we explained how these allow your site to be viewed without problems on all devices (e.g. your visitors’ 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 up only WordPress themes that are “responsive” …
Pros & Cons Of Using Free Themes
The obvious “pro” to using free themes is that it costs you nothing to download and use the theme. Additionally, many free themes are professionally designed and provide a number of customizable settings, giving you great flexibility and choice in how you configure all of its various layout elements.
The ”cons” 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 dedicated support, especially if they are not getting paid. Many free themes will ask you for a donation to help cover their costs of providing support.
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 made, then think twice about downloading 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 premium themes. Who knows, the free theme you’ve downloaded could be exactly what works for you and for converting your site visitors into customers.
Now that we’ve seen how to find free themes in the WordPress theme directory and ways to filter your search for themes that meet your specific requirements, let’s turn our attention to premium 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 ongoing support, you can search through the WordPress theme galleries of the “Premium” theme design agencies listed below:
WP Theme Directories
ThemeForest
ThemeForest is one of the largest and most popular WP theme directories online.
ThemeForest allows many professional WP theme designers to showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are well over 17,500 premium WordPress themes listed (you can find great themes from as little as $3) …
(click on the above images to view all ThemeForest themes)
If you visit the ThemeForest theme marketplace, you will be able to browse for specific themes in a range of categories, such as:
- Blog/Magazine – themes for general blogs and green living blogs, etc.
- Corporate – themes suitable for business sites or marketing purposes.
- Creative – themes suitable for portfolios, cv and resume writing, etc.
- Directory Listings – themes that suit sites about travel, buy & sell, tourism directories, etc.
- eCommerce – themes for ecommerce, event bookings and registrations, etc.
- Education – themes that suit sites related to training, etc.
- Entertainment – themes for music and bands blogs, restaurants, etc.
- Mobile – e.g. mobile-switching 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 catalogs, trades or professionals (electricians, medical practitioners, etc.)
- Technology – themes related to software, landing pages, etc.
- Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and wedding advice blogs
- Miscellaneous – themes suitable for writing or discussing political issues, 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 discover great themes in the ThemeForest directory:
Creative Market
(click on the above images to browse all Creative Market themes)
Creative Market is another leading WP theme marketplace where you can browse 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 directory, but you can easily find WP themes and narrow your search using theme categories (e.g. Magazine or Photography themes, etc.) from their dropdown “Themes” menu …
Browse through hundreds of great themes crafted by independent WordPress theme designers in the Creative Market directory here:
Mojo Themes
(click on the images above to browse more Mojo themes)
Mojo is a marketplace 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 themes for WordPress and narrow your search with theme categories by choosing the site’s dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …
Visit the site to find quality premium themes in the Mojo marketplace here:
Now that we have looked at WordPress theme directories, let’s take a look at commercial and independent theme stores.
Commercial And Independent 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 above images to view all themes from SoloStream)
Woo Themes
Woo Themes creates functional premium themes for WordPress that are very popular and highly sought after by web users and offers a membership option that allows you access to their entire theme collection.
(click on the above images to see all themes from WooThemes)
StoreFront
StoreFront specializes in creating 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 provides 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 site designs with beautiful frames for the content and unprecedented control of the framework.
Many web developers prefer using this framework not only because it’s well-coded and well-supported (the development team at StudioPress keeps the framework regularly updated to reflect best coding practices and to ensure that it always remains compatible with the latest version of WordPress, but because you can update your themes 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 look and feel.
If this sounds way 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 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 above images to browse more StudioPress themes)
WP Theme-Checking Tools
Let’s finish this article with a couple of useful WordPress theme-related tools worth knowing about:
What WordPress Theme Is That? WordPress Theme Checker
What WordPress Theme Is That? is a free online tool that allows you to 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 theme the website is using.
Tip: If you don’t know whether a site uses WordPress or not, we have published a a great tutorial that helps you tell whether or not a website is powered by WordPress: How Can I Check If My Web 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 then not only confirm if a site has been built using WordPress software, but it will also list the WP theme being used and list any plugins detected.
- To use the tool visit the website here: What WordPress Theme Is That
- To learn how to use this tool go here: The Easy Way To Tell If Your Website Runs On The WordPress CMS Platform
Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) – Plugin
A word of warning: When choosing FREE themes for your WordPress site, we strongly recommend sticking with the reviewed and approved themes listed in the official WordPress theme repository.
A method that is commonly used by a number of hackers and syndicates that engage in cyber-crime is to put up websites and directories offering “Free” WP themes all over the web and then distribute themes containing malicious code. In fact, some of these sites even come up on Google for key phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free WordPress themes”” etc. It’s best, therefore, to only download free themes from the official WordPress directory, or use established and reputable theme vendors.
If you are in doubt about whether a WordPress theme that you have installed on your site may be infected with malware or unwanted code, use a free WordPress plugin like Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) to scan your WP theme files. The TAC plugin scans the source files of every installed theme on your site for signs of injected code and then outputs a report with the results …
(TAC Report Page – Screenshot Source: Plugin Site, WordPress.org)
I hope that you have found the information on how to find great WordPress free and commercial responsive themes useful.
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