In another article, we have written a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.
If you haven’t yet discovered themes and what makes WordPress themes unique, then go here to read our article: About WordPress Themes – A Practical Guide
In this blog post, we show you where you can browse hundreds of free and paid themes for your WP 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 customer support and poor coding.
As we’ve explained in our previously-mentioned post, a theme is a special kind of web design template that is used on WordPress-driven websites and blogs and designed specifically with the WordPress CMS platform in mind.
Many skilled web designers and web design houses create themes for WordPress. Consequently, members of the WP community can access thousands of exciting themes designed to cover many website uses.
Where To Find Responsive Themes: So Many Choices … Where To Begin?
Let’s say you were to browse over to Google and search for a key phrase like this:
- best responsive WP themes
- best free themes for WordPress
- best paid WordPress themes for musicians (type in whatever your business, search topic or website is about)
You are probably 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 WP themes really simple.
WordPress.com vs WordPress.org Themes
Before we get started, you should know that WordPress offers users both a hosted and a self-hosted version. We’ll explain these differences in a different post. In this article, please note that we will only be covering themes for the self-hosted version of WordPress (WordPress.org) in this post, which gives you more freedom, more options and more control over the design areas of your site.
Free vs Paid WordPress Themes
Next, it’s important to know that you will find thousands of 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 can be listed as Premium (paid) themes.
WP Theme Marketplaces vs Commercial WP Theme Developers
There are two kinds of places where WordPress themes can be found. The first place is in WP theme marketplaces and theme directories. The second place are the commercial and independent theme houses.
WP theme marketplaces and theme directories are large theme aggregators. theme developers (both commercial and independent) list their themes (both free and paid) in the marketplace or directory and customers search for these just like they would if they were shopping for apps on an app store or software directory.
Some of the larger theme stores 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 typically will develop both free and paid themes, and can vary in size, from an individual theme designer or a small team of theme designer, to large web and theme development companies.
Many commercial or independent 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 WordPress theme directories .
Let’s now show you where to find the best themes for your website.
Finding A Responsive WP Theme For Your Website Or Blog
WordPress.org
(WordPress.org – WordPress Themes Directory)
The official WordPress 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 WP themes. The reason for this, is because –as many 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 … even your entire business at risk.
The WordPress directory is not only a trustworthy and reputable place to download themes for your website or blog, but it also uses a review team to review and make sure that each theme in the directory meets their quality and security standards.
To browse thousands of professionally-designed FREE WordPress themes from the official Themes Directory, go here:
http://www.wordpress.org/extend/themes
Search For Free WordPress 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 activate it directly from within your WP dashboard with just a couple of clicks.
Use Theme Filtering
WordPress provides a filtering function inside the dashboard area that lets you narrow down your search for themes based on criteria like Colours, Layout and Features …
This makes it easy to find themes with specific features. For example, you could search for themes with a orange color design, with a three-column layout and a full-width template, or themes that support custom menus, etc.
Note: in the article where we discuss the importance of choosing “responsive” WP themes, we explained how these allow your site to be viewed without problems across all devices (e.g. computers, tablets and smartphones) …
You should use responsive themes, and the WordPress theme filtering function lets you do just that …
… and bring back only WordPress themes that are “responsive” …
Pros & Cons Of Using Free 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 provide a number of customizable settings, giving you great flexibility and choice in how you configure all of its various layout elements.
The ”cons” to 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 free themes ask users for donations to help cover costs of providing support.
When downloading free themes, therefore, check to see when the theme was last updated. If it’s been over 1 year since any change was last made, then we advise you to think twice about using it, as the WordPress software is frequently updated and new features 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 any money on paid themes. Who knows, the theme you downloaded for free may just be the thing that works for you 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 ways to filter your search for themes that meet your specific criteria, it’s time to turn our attention to premium 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 great support, then search through the WordPress theme galleries of the “Premium” theme design agencies listed below:
Theme Marketplaces And Directories
ThemeForest
ThemeForest is one of the biggest and most popular theme marketplaces online.
ThemeForest allows many professional WP theme designers to showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are well over 17,000 premium WP themes to choose from (you can find great themes from as little as $3) …
(click on the above images to view all 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 parenting blogs, etc.
- Corporate – themes suitable for medical sites or marketing purposes.
- Creative – themes suitable for creative work, writing professionals, etc.
- Directory Listings – themes that suit sites related to directory listings, dining out & restaurants, business directories, etc.
- eCommerce – themes for online shopping, membership sites, etc.
- Education – themes that suit sites related to tutoring, etc.
- Entertainment – themes for fashion 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. home sales, etc.)
- Retail – themes for travel, trades or professionals (plumbers, legal practitioners, etc.)
- Technology – themes related to technology, landing pages, etc.
- Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and romance tips and advice 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 emails you theme update notifications)
Go here to browse many quality premium themes in the ThemeForest website:
Creative Market
(click on the above images to view all Creative Market themes)
Creative Market is another leading WordPress 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 WordPress themes in its directory, but you can easily find WP themes and narrow your search using theme categories (e.g. Minimal or Business themes, etc.) using their dropdown “Themes” menu …
Browse through hundreds of quality premium WP themes crafted by independent WP theme designers in the Creative Market marketplace here:
Mojo Themes
(click on the above images to see all WP themes at Mojo.com)
Mojo is a marketplace for premium-quality 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 WordPress themes, but you can easily go through all of their themes for WordPress and narrow your search with theme categories from the site’s dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …
Visit the site to find great premium themes in the Mojo marketplace here:
Now that we have looked at WP theme aggregators, let’s look at commercial and independent WP theme agencies.
Commercial Theme Vendors
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 images above to view more themes from SoloStream)
Woo Themes
Woo Themes creates eye-catching premium themes that are very popular and highly sought after by website users and also offer a membership option that lets you access all themes in their growing theme collection.
(click on the images above to see more themes from WooThemes)
StoreFront
StoreFront specializes in creating 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 above images to see more 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 an auto-updating design architecture, turn-key site designs with beautiful frames for your content and unprecedented control of the framework.
Many website developers prefer using the Genesis framework not only because it’s well-coded and well-supported (the development team at StudioPress keeps the framework frequently up-to-date to reflect best practices for coding and to ensure that it is 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 a paint job that sits 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 themes from StudioPress is that you pay one low price 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 view all StudioPress themes)
WP Theme-Checking Tools
Let’s finish this post with a couple of useful WordPress theme-related tools worth keeping in mind:
What WP Theme Is That? WordPress Theme Checker
What WordPress Theme Is That? is a free online tool that lets you easily detect what WordPress theme and plugins a website or blog is using (including parent and child WordPress 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 can’t tell if a site was built using WordPress or not, we have posted a a great tutorial that shows you how to tell whether or not a site uses WordPress: Is My Website 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 WordPress, but it will also list the WordPress theme being used and list any plugins it detects.
- To use the online tool go here: What WordPress Theme Is That
- To learn how to use this tool go here: Is It A WP Website?
Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) – WordPress Plugin
A word of warning: When choosing FREE themes for your WordPress site, we recommend sticking with the themes listed in the official WordPress theme repository.
A strategy that is commonly used by a number of hacking groups and networks that engage in cyber criminal activities is to put up websites offering “Free” WP themes all over the web and then distribute modified themes that contain malicious code. In fact, some of these sites even come up on search engine results for search phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free themes for WordPress”” etc. It’s safer, therefore, to stick with the official WordPress.org theme directory, or use established and reputable theme vendors.
If you have any concerns about whether a WordPress theme installed on your blog may be infected with malicious or unwanted code, you can use a free WordPress plugin like Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) to scan your theme files. This 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 …
(Theme Authenticity Checker Report Page – Source: WordPress.org Plugin Site)
I hope that you have found this information useful.
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