Tag: WordPress Themes

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

If you would like to learn more about themes and what makes WP themes so attractive to website owners, then go here to read our article: An Overview of WordPress Themes

In this blog post, we will show you where to find many professional 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 make sure that you get the right themes for your needs and avoid experiencing problems like lack of support and poorly-coded themes.

As explained in our previously-mentioned article, a theme is a special type of web design template that is used on WordPress-driven websites and designed specifically in the WordPress CMS platform.

Many website designers and website development firms create themes for WordPress. Consequently, WordPress users enjoy access to thousands of high quality WP themes covering a wide-range of uses and applications.

Where To Find Great Themes: Let’s Simplify Things!

If you were to fire up Google and search for something like this:

• best free WordPress themes
• WordPress themes free
• best free WordPress themes for authors (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 your search results.

So, to help you save time and make things 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 need to know that WordPress offers both a hosted and a self-hosted version. We’ll cover these differences in a different post. In this post, let’s just be covering the topic of finding 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 aspects of your site.

Free vs Paid WP Themes

Next, it’s useful to know that typically, you’ll find both Free and Paid themes made available. Free themes are normally distributed as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they can be sold as Premium (i.e. paid) themes.

WordPress Theme Marketplaces vs WordPress Theme Developers

There are two different types of places where themes can be found. The first place is in WP theme marketplaces and WordPress theme directories. The second type of place are the commercial and independent theme companies.

WP theme marketplaces and WP theme directories are large aggregators of themes. theme developers (both commercial and independent) list their themes (both free and paid) in the marketplace or directory and visitors shop 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 WordPress theme design companies can also develop both free and paid WordPress themes, and can vary in size, from an individual designer or a small team of theme developer, to large theme design companies.

As you will see, most commercial theme shops 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 WordPress theme directories .

Let’s now show you where to find great themes for your website or blog.

Finding The Best Themes For Your Website Or Blog

WordPress.org

(WordPress.org – Themes Directory)

The official WordPress theme directory is the biggest and best place to search for WordPress themes for free. In fact, it’s probably the only free theme directory you should use when looking for free WP 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 … even your entire business at risk.

The WP theme directory is not only a trustworthy and reputable place to download themes for your website or blog, but it also uses a theme review team comprised of dedicated and code-savvy volunteers to review and ensure that each theme in the directory meets certain quality and security standards.

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

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

Search For Free WordPress Themes Without Leaving Your Own WP Dashboard

Useful Tip: You can easily browse through every 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 only a few clicks.

Use The Theme Filtering

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 easier to find themes with specific features. For example, you could search for themes with predominantly pink colour design, with a 3-column layout and a full-width template, or themes that support custom menus, etc.

Note: in the post mentioned earlier where we present an overview of WordPress themes and discuss the importance of using “responsive” themes, we explained how responsive themes ensure that your theme will work on all devices (e.g. your visitors’ computers, tablets and smartphones) …

You should use responsive themes, and the WordPress theme filtering option lets you search across its entire database of free themes …

… and bring up only 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. An added plus, is that many free themes are professionally designed and offer a number of customizable options, giving you great flexibility and choice in how you configure all of its various layout elements.

The ”cons” to using free WordPress 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 personal support, especially if they are not getting paid. Many free themes ask users for donations to help cover costs of providing support and updates, bug fixes, etc..

When downloading free themes, therefore, check to see when the theme was last updated. If it’s been well over one year since any updates were last made, then think carefully about downloading it, as the theme may have been abandoned by its developer.

If you’re just getting started and your website is still quite 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 money on a premium theme. 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 WordPress themes in the WordPress theme directory and how to filter your search for themes that meet specific criteria, let’s turn our attention to finding paid WP 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 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 directories online.

ThemeForest allows many professional WP theme designers to showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are over 15,000 premium themes to choose from (some starting from as little as $3) …

(click on the images above to browse all themes on ThemeForest)

If you visit the ThemeForest theme marketplace, you will be able to browse for specific themes in various categories, such as:

• Blog/Magazine – themes for personal blogs and environmental blogs, etc.
• Corporate – themes suitable for corporate sites or advertising purposes.
• Creative – themes suitable for portfolios, ebook authors, etc.
• Directory Listings – themes that suit sites related to directory listings, buy & sell, community resources, etc.
• eCommerce – themes for e-commerce, membership sites, etc.
• Education – themes that suit sites related to tutoring, etc.
• Entertainment – themes for entertainment blogs, dining out, 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. commercial property, etc.)
• Retail – themes for beauty products, trades or professionals (electricians, legal firms, etc.)
• Technology – themes related to hosting, newsletters, etc.
• Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and romance tips and 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)

Browse lots of great themes in the ThemeForest directory here:

• ThemeForest

Creative Market

(click on the images above to browse all Creative Market themes)

Creative Market is another leading WP 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 WP themes in its marketplace, but you can easily find WordPress themes and search through their theme categories (e.g. Magazine or Business themes, etc.) 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 theme directory here:

• Creative Market

Mojo Themes

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

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 WordPress themes, but you can easily browse hundreds of themes for WordPress and search through their theme categories (e.g. Portfolio or Business themes and theme frameworks, etc.) using the dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …

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

• Mojo Themes

Now that we have looked at WP theme aggregators, let’s turn our attention to commercial WordPress theme shops.

Commercial And Independent WP Theme Developers

SoloStream

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

(click on images above to browse more SoloStream themes)

Woo Themes

Woo Themes designs stunning themes for WordPress that are very popular and highly sought after by website users and offer a membership option that gives you access to all themes in their growing WP theme portfolio.

(click on the above images to see more WooThemes themes)

StoreFront

StoreFront Themes creates stunning WordPress themes for e-commerce. StoreFront themes also integrate well with some of the most powerful e-commerce platforms and plugins available.

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

StudioPress

StudioPress develops WordPress themes based on a framework that enables users to 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 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 this framework consistently updated to reflect best coding practices and to ensure that themes are always compatible with the latest WordPress version, 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 “skins” that sit on top of the framework and gives your site its unique design.

If this all sounds 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 above images to see all StudioPress themes)

WP Theme-Checking Tools

Here are a few more useful WP theme-related tools worth keeping in mind:

What WordPress Theme Is That?

What WordPress Theme Is That.com is a free web tool that lets you easily detect what WP theme a website uses (including parent and child 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 site.

Tip: If you don’t know if a site runs on WordPress or not, go here for a great tutorial that helps you tell whether or not a website is WP-driven: Was My Website Built Using WordPress? How To Tell

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 is powered by WordPress, but it will also list the theme being used on the site and list any WordPress plugins it detects.

• To use this tool go here: What WordPress Theme Is That
• To learn how to use this tool go here: Is My Blog WordPress?

Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC)

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

A strategy that is commonly used by many hacking groups and networks that engage in cyber-crime is to put up sites offering “Free” themes for WordPress all over the web and then distribute modified themes with malicious code embedded in their files. In fact, some of these sites even come up on Google’s search results for search phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free WordPress themes”” etc. It’s best, therefore, to stick with the official WordPress.org theme repository, or use well-known and trusted theme vendors.

If you are concerned about whether a WordPress theme that you have installed on your blog 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 WP theme files. The plugin searches the source files of every installed theme on your site for signs of injected code and then presents you with a report with the results …

(Theme Authenticity Checker Report Page – Screenshot: Plugin)

I hope that you have found the information on how to find great free and premium themes for WordPress useful.

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