Tag: WP Themes

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

If you haven’t yet discovered WP themes and what makes WP themes so special, then make sure to check out this post: About WP Themes – A Beginner’s Guide

In this article, you will learn where you can look for free and paid themes for your WordPress website or blog. 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 experiencing problems like lack of customer support and poor coding.

As explained in another post, a WordPress theme is a unique type of web template used on WordPress-powered websites and designed specifically in the WP CMS platform.

Many skilled web designers and website development agencies create themes for WordPress. Consequently, WordPress users can access thousands of unique WP themes designed to cover many website uses.

Where To Find Great Themes: Let’s Keep It Simple!

Let’s say you were to fire up Google and type something like this:

• best WordPress themes
• best premium WordPress themes
• best paid WordPress themes for writers (type in whatever your business, area of interest or website is about)

You are probably going to get an overwhelming amount of disorganized information 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 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 different article. In this post, we’ll only focus on finding themes for the self-hosted version of WordPress (WordPress.org) in this article, as these give you more freedom, more options and more control over the design aspects of your website.

Free vs Paid Themes

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

WP Theme Directories & WP Theme Shops

There are mostly two different types of places where you can find themes. The first type of place is in WordPress theme marketplaces and WP theme directories. The second are the commercial and independent theme stores.

WP theme marketplaces and 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 directory.

Some of the bigger 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 developers can develop both free and commercial themes, and can vary in size, from an individual designer or a small team of theme designer, to large web and theme design and development companies.

As you will see, many commercial theme design firms 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 WP theme directories .

Let’s now show you where to find the best themes for your website.

Choosing A Great Theme Themes For Your Website Or Blog

WordPress.org

(WordPress.org – Themes Directory)

The official WordPress theme directory is the largest and best place to search for WordPress 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 why, 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 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 site, but it also uses a review team comprised of dedicated and hard working volunteers to review and make sure that each theme uploaded to the directory meets high quality and security standards.

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

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

Look For Free WordPress Themes Inside Your Own WP Dashboard

Useful Tip: You can easily browse through every WP theme in the WordPress.org directory and not only find a great theme for your website or blog, but also easily install and start using it directly from within your WP dashboard with only a few mouse 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 easier to find themes with specific features. For example, you could search for themes with predominantly pink color design, with a four-column layout and a full-width template, or themes that support custom menus, etc.

Note: in the article where we discuss the importance of using “responsive” themes, we explained how responsive themes ensure that your theme will display correctly on all devices (e.g. your PC, smartphone and tablet) …

It’s a good idea to use responsive themes, and the WordPress theme filter lets you do just that …

… and find only themes that are “responsive” …

Pros & Cons Of Using Free WordPress 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 provide a number of built-in customizable settings, giving you great flexibility and choice in how you configure all of its various layout elements.

The downside to 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 urgent support, especially if they are not getting paid. Many freely distributed themes ask 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 more than 1 year since any updates were made, then it’s best to think twice about downloading it, as WordPress is frequently updated and these changes can create conflicts and errors with older code.

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 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 WP themes in the WordPress.org theme directory and ways to narrow down your search for themes that meet specific criteria, it’s time to turn our attention to finding paid 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 great 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 biggest and well known WP theme marketplaces online.

ThemeForest lets many professional WordPress theme designers showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are well over 17,000 premium WordPress themes listed (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 marketplace, you will be able to browse for specific themes in various categories, such as:

• Blog/Magazine – themes for bloggers and activism blogs, etc.
• Corporate – themes suitable for legal sites or marketing purposes.
• Creative – themes suitable for creative work, freelancers, etc.
• Directory Listings – themes that suit sites about employment opportunities, classifieds, tourism directories, etc.
• eCommerce – themes for ecommerce, membership sites, etc.
• Education – themes that suit sites related to teaching, etc.
• Entertainment – themes for film & tv blogs, nightlife, 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 health products, trades or professionals (repairers, medical practitioners, etc.)
• Technology – themes related to software, landing pages, etc.
• Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and romance tips and 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)

Browse lots of quality premium WordPress themes in the ThemeForest themes directory here:

• ThemeForest

Creative Market

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

Creative Market is another leading WordPress theme directory where you can browse 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 go through all of their WordPress themes and search through their theme categories using the site’s dropdown “Themes” menu …

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

• Creative Market

Mojo Themes

(click on the above images to browse all themes at Mojo.com)

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 go through all of their themes for WordPress and search through their theme categories by selecting the dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …

Visit the site to find great premium WordPress themes in the Mojo themes directory here:

• Mojo Themes

Now that we have looked at WordPress theme marketplaces, let’s look at commercial WP theme design houses.

Commercial And Independent Theme Agencies

SoloStream

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

(click on above images to browse more SoloStream themes)

Woo Themes

Woo Themes creates great WordPress themes and offers a membership option that allows members access to their entire WP theme portfolio.

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

StoreFront

StoreFront creates beautiful 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 above images to see all themes from StoreFront)

StudioPress

StudioPress develops WordPress themes based on a framework (called the “Genesis” framework) that allows users to 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 like this framework not only because it’s well-coded and well-supported (the development team at StudioPress keeps the framework regularly up-to-date to reflect best coding practices and to ensure that themes remain 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 a paint job that sits on top of the theme framework and gives your site its unique look and feel.

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

Theme-Checking Tools

To round things up, here are a few more useful WP theme-related tools worth knowing about:

What WP Theme Is That? – WP Theme And Plugin Checker

What WordPress Theme Is That is a free WordPress theme and plugin search tool that lets you easily detect what WordPress theme and plugins a website or blog is using (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 the website is using.

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 if a site uses WordPress: How To Tell If Your Site Was Built With 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 the site is built on WordPress software, but it will also list the WP theme being used and list any WP plugins detected.

• To use the tool visit the website here: What WordPress Theme Is That.com
• To learn more about using this tool go here: Is My Web Site WordPress?

Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) – Plugin

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

A commonly-used tactic employed by many hacking groups and networks that engage in cyber criminal activities is to put up websites offering “Free” themes for WordPress all over the web and then distribute themes that contain malicious code. In fact, some of these sites even come up on Google’s search results for search phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free themes for WordPress”” etc. It’s best, therefore, to stick with the official WordPress theme repository, or use established and reputable sites.

If you have any concerns about whether a WordPress theme installed on your site could be infected with malware or unwanted code, you can use a free WordPress plugin like Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) to scan your theme files. This plugin searches the source files of every them you have installed on your site for signs of injected code and then outputs a report …

(Theme Authenticity Checker Report Page – Screenshot Source: WordPress.org Plugin Site)

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

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