Tag: WordPress Themes

In a separate post, we have written a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.

If you would like to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress themes and what makes themes so attractive to web site owners, then make sure to check out the article here: A Handy Guide To WordPress Themes

In this article, you will learn where you can browse hundreds of free and paid themes for your WP 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 how to avoid having to deal with problems like lack of product support and poor coding.

As we’ve explained in our previous article, a theme is a special kind of web template that is used on WordPress-driven websites and designed to work specifically with WordPress in mind.

Many website designers and web design companies create themes for WordPress. Consequently, WordPress users can access thousands of unique themes designed for many website uses.

Where To Find Responsive Themes: So Many Choices … Where To Begin?

Let’s say you were to open up Google and search for the following:

• best free themes for WordPress
• WordPress themes free
• best free WordPress themes for musicians (or whatever your business, area of interest or website is about)

Chances are that you are going to get an overwhelming amount of junk to sort through in your search listings.

So, to help you save time and make things easier, let’s 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 a separate article. To keep things simple, let’s just be covering the topic of 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 WordPress Themes

Next, it’s important to know that there are thousands of Free and Paid WordPress themes made available. Free themes are generally distributed as Free 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 & WordPress Theme Design Houses

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

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

Some of the larger marketplaces 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 design houses typically develop both free and paid themes, and can vary in size, from an individual designer or a small team of theme designer, to large theme design companies.

As you will see, most commercial theme stores 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 search for the best themes for your blog.

Choosing The Best Themes For Your WordPress Website

WordPress.org

(WordPress.org – WordPress Themes Directory)

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

The WordPress theme directory is not only a trustworthy and reputable place to download themes for your WP site, but it also uses a theme review team to review and ensure that each theme uploaded to the directory meets their quality and security standards.

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

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

You Don’t Even Have To Leave Your WP Dashboard

Useful Tip: You can easily browse through every theme in the WordPress theme directory and not only find a great theme for your website or blog, but also easily install and start using it directly from inside your WordPress dashboard with just a few clicks.

Use The WP Theme Feature Filters

WordPress provides a filtering function inside the dashboard area that lets you narrow down your search for themes based on criteria like Colors, Layout and Features …

This makes it easy to find what you are looking for. For example, you could search for themes with predominantly pink colour design, with a four-column layout and a full-width template, or themes that support custom menus, etc.

Note: in another post where we discuss the importance of choosing “responsive” themes, we explained how responsive themes ensure that your theme will display correctly on all devices (e.g. your visitors’ PCs, smartphones and tablets) …

You should use responsive themes, and the WordPress theme filtering option lets you do just that …

… and bring back only WP themes that are “responsive” …

Pros & Cons Of Using Free Themes

The obvious “pro” to using free WP themes is that it costs you nothing 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 built-in customizable features, giving you great flexibility and choice in how you configure all of its various layout elements.

The downside of 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 developer to provide immediate support, especially if they are not getting paid. Many free themes ask for donations 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 more than a year since any updates were made, then you should think twice about using it, as the theme may have been abandoned by its developer.

If you’re just getting started and your website 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 money on premium themes or even on custom theme design. Who knows, the free theme you’ve downloaded may just be the thing that works for your site and for your business.

Now that we’ve seen how to find free WordPress themes in the WordPress.org theme directory and ways to narrow down your search for themes that meet specific requirements, it’s time to turn our attention to finding paid 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:

Theme Marketplaces

ThemeForest

ThemeForest is one of the largest and most popular theme directories online.

ThemeForest lets many professional WP theme designers showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are over 17,000 premium WordPress themes to choose from (you can find great themes 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 WP themes in a range of categories, such as:

• Blog/Magazine – themes for personal blogs and green living blogs, etc.
• Corporate – themes suitable for government sites or advertising purposes.
• Creative – themes for photography, galleries, etc.
• Directory Listings – themes suitable for sites about directory listings, dining out & restaurants, social directories, etc.
• eCommerce – themes for online shopping, event bookings and registrations, etc.
• Education – themes that suit sites related to tutoring, etc.
• Entertainment – themes for entertainment 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 stores, trades or professionals (repairers, chiropractors, etc.)
• Technology – themes related to software, affiliate marketing, seo, product reviews, direct sales, etc.
• Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and marriage counselling blogs
• Miscellaneous – themes suitable for topics related to activism, 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 emails you theme update notifications)

Browse lots of quality premium WP themes in the ThemeForest marketplace here:

• ThemeForest

Creative Market

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

Creative Market is another leading WordPress theme directory where you can search through thousands of 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 marketplace, but you can easily browse hundreds of WordPress themes and search through their theme categories (e.g. Magazine or Business themes, etc.) from the site’s dropdown “Themes” menu …

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

• Creative Market

Mojo Themes

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

Mojo is a directory for premium 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 find themes for WordPress and search through their theme categories by choosing the site’s dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …

Visit the site to find great themes in the Mojo themes marketplace here:

• Mojo

Now that we have looked at WP theme marketplaces, let’s take a look at commercial theme stores.

Commercial Theme Developers

SoloStream

SoloStream provides WordPress users with a great selection of professional quality premium 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 designs functional themes that are very popular and highly sought after by web users and offer a membership option that allows members access to their entire theme collection.

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

StoreFront

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

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

StudioPress

StudioPress develops WordPress themes based on a framework (called the “Genesis” framework) that lets users quickly and easily build a professional and search optimized WordPress website, and provides an auto-updating design architecture, turn-key designs with beautiful frames for the content and unprecedented control of the framework.

Many web developers like the Genesis framework not only because it’s well-coded and well-supported (the development team at StudioPress keeps this framework consistently up-to-date to reflect best coding practices and to ensure that themes are always 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 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 design.

If this all sounds way too technical, don’t worry about it. StudioPress themes are very easy to work with, just like all other WordPress themes. The great thing about choosing StudioPress themes 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 view all themes from StudioPress)

Theme-Checking Tools

Let’s finish this article with a few more useful WP theme-related tools worth knowing about:

What WordPress Theme Is That?

What WordPress Theme Is That? is a free web tool that allows you to easily detect what WordPress theme and plugins a website or blog uses.

This is a great resource if you ever come across a WordPress site that you like and would like to know what WP theme is being used on the site.

Tip: If you can’t tell whether a site was built using WordPress or not, go here for a great tutorial that shows you how to tell if a site was built using WordPress: Is My Website Built With 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 then not only confirm if the site was built using WordPress, but it will also list the theme being used by the site and list any WordPress plugins it detects.

• To use this online tool visit the website here: What WordPress Theme Is That.com
• To learn more about this tool go here: Is It A WordPress Blog?

Theme Authenticity Checker - WP Plugin

A word of warning: When choosing FREE themes for your WordPress site, we recommend sticking with the reviewed and approved WordPress themes listed in the official WordPress theme directory.

A well-known strategy used by many 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 display on Google’s search results for phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free themes for WordPress”” etc. It’s best, therefore, to stick with the official WordPress.org repository, 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 malicious or unwanted code, you can use a free WordPress plugin like Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) to scan your WordPress theme files. The TAC plugin scans the source files of every installed theme on your site for signs of injected code and outputs a report …

(Theme Authenticity Checker Report Page – Source: Plugin)

We hope that you have found this information useful.

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