Tag: WP Themes

In an earlier post, we provide a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.

If you haven’t yet discovered themes and what makes WordPress themes unique, then make sure to check out our post: About WordPress Themes – A Beginner’s Guide

In this article, you will learn where you can explore loads of great free and paid themes for your WordPress website or blog. 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 how to avoid having to deal with problems like lack of customer support and poor theme coding.

As explained in another article, a theme is a unique type of web design template used on WordPress-powered blogs and designed specifically in WordPress.

Many skilled website designers and web development agencies create themes for WordPress. Consequently, WordPress users have access to thousands of professional themes designed for many purposes.

Finding Great Responsive Themes For WordPress: Let’s Keep It Simple!

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

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

You are probably 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 WP themes really simple.

WordPress.com vs WordPress.org Themes

Before we get started, you should know that WordPress offers both a hosted and a self-hosted version. We’ll cover these differences in a different article. To keep things simple, 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 your site’s web design.

Free vs Paid Themes

Next, it’s important to know that there are thousands of Free and Paid themes being made available. Free WP themes are normally distributed as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they are licensed for use as Premium (i.e. paid) themes.

WordPress Theme Marketplaces vs Theme Agencies

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

Theme marketplaces and 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 buyers find 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 theme design houses can design both free and premium WP themes, and can vary in size, from an individual theme developer or a small team of theme designer, to large theme design companies.

Most commercial or independent 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 directories .

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

Where To Find WordPress Themes For Your Website Or Blog

WordPress.org

(WordPress.org – Free Theme Directory)

The official WordPress.org theme directory is the biggest and best place to search for free WordPress themes. In fact, it’s probably the only free theme directory you should use when looking for free WP themes. The reason for this, is because –as some free software users have learned– downloading free software, add-ons, apps, templates or themes from untrustworthy places can 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 website or blog, but it also uses a review team to review and make sure that each theme listed in the directory meets their quality and security standards.

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

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

Find Themes Inside Your Dashboard

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

Use WordPress Theme Filters

WordPress has a built-in 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 easier to find themes with specific features. For example, you could search for themes with a blue colour design, with a 2-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” WordPress themes, we explained how these allow your site to be viewed without problems across all devices (e.g. your visitors’ computers, smartphones and tablets) …

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

… and bring up only themes that are “responsive” …

Pros & Cons Of Using Free Themes

The obvious “pro” to using free WP 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 features, giving you great flexibility and choice in how you configure all of its various layout elements.

The downside 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 developer to provide urgent support, especially if they are not getting paid. Most freely distributed themes will ask you for a donation 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 more than 1 year since any changes were made, then we advise you to 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, there is nothing wrong with using 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 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 WordPress themes in the WordPress theme directory and how to narrow down your search for themes that meet your specific criteria, it’s time to turn our attention to finding paid WP themes.

Paid WordPress 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 responsive support, you can search through the WordPress theme galleries of the “Premium” theme design agencies listed below:

WP Theme Marketplaces And Directories

ThemeForest

ThemeForest is one of the largest and well known WordPress theme marketplaces online.

ThemeForest allows many professional WordPress theme designers to showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are over 17,000 premium themes to choose from (you can find great themes from as little as $3) …

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

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

• Blog/Magazine – themes for general blogs and parenting blogs, etc.
• Corporate – themes suitable for corporate sites or advertising purposes.
• Creative – themes suitable for photography, freelancers, etc.
• Directory Listings – themes ideal for sites about directory listings, buy & sell, tourism directories, etc.
• eCommerce – themes for selling products online, membership sites, etc.
• Education – themes that suit sites related to teaching, etc.
• Entertainment – themes for music and bands blogs, music venues, 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 travel, trades or professionals (plumbers, legal firms, etc.)
• Technology – themes related to technology, newsletters, etc.
• Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and wedding 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 themes marketplace here:

• ThemeForest

Creative Market

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

Creative Market is another leading WP theme marketplace 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 go through all of their 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 great WordPress themes crafted by independent WP theme developers in the Creative Market directory here:

• Creative Market

Mojo Themes

(click on the above images to browse all 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 WP themes, but you can easily find WP themes and narrow your search with theme categories (e.g. Responsive or Photography themes and theme frameworks, etc.) using the site’s dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …

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

• Mojo Themes

Now that we have looked at WordPress theme aggregators, let’s look at commercial and independent theme development firms.

Commercial And Independent WP Theme Developers

SoloStream

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

(click on above images to view more SoloStream themes)

Woo Themes

Woo Themes designs stunning premium themes for WordPress and offer a membership option that allows you access to all themes in their WordPress theme portfolio.

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

StoreFront

StoreFront Themes creates stunning 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 images above to browse more themes from StoreFront)

StudioPress

StudioPress builds 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 designs with beautiful frames for the content and unprecedented control of the framework.

Many website developers prefer using this framework not only because it’s well-coded and well-supported (the development team at StudioPress keeps this framework consistently updated to reflect best practices for coding and to ensure that themes remain always compatible with the latest version of WordPress, 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 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 you pay just 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 see more themes from StudioPress)

WordPress Theme-Checking Tools

To round things up, here are some useful WordPress theme-related tools worth keeping in mind:

What WordPress Theme Is That? WP Theme Checker

What WordPress Theme Is That is a free web tool that allows you to easily detect what WP theme a website uses.

This is a great resource if you ever 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 was built using WordPress or not, go here for a great tutorial that helps you tell if a site uses the WP CMS platform: Tell-Tale Signs It’s A WordPress Blog And WP-Checking Tools

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 whether or not the site is built using WordPress, but it will also list the theme being used by the site and list any WP plugins detected.

• To use the tool go here: What WordPress Theme Is That?
• To learn more about using this tool go here: How To Tell If A Site Was Built With WordPress

Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC)

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

A well-known tactic used by a number of hacking groups and syndicates that engage in cyber criminal activities is to put up sites offering “Free” WordPress themes all over the web and then distribute themes with malicious code embedded in their files. In fact, some of these sites even come up on search engine results for phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free themes for WordPress”” etc. It’s best, therefore, to stick with the official WordPress.org directory, or use established and trusted theme merchants.

If you are concerned about whether a WordPress theme installed on your site may be infected with malware or unwanted code, you can use a free WordPress plugin like Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) to perform a scan of your theme files. The plugin scans the source files of every them you have installed on your site for signs of injected code and presents you with a report as shown in the screenshot below …

(TAC Report Page – Source: WordPress.org Plugin)

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

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