Where To Find The Best WordPress Themes

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

If you would like to know more about themes and what makes WP themes so special, then go here to read our article: A Handy Guide To Understanding WP Themes

In this article, we explain where you can look for free and paid themes for your WP website or blog. 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 dealing with problems like lack of support and poorly-coded themes.

As explained in our previously-mentioned post, a WordPress theme is a unique kind of web design template that is used on WordPress-powered blogs and designed to work specifically with the WordPress platform in mind.

Many individual website designers and website design agencies create themes for WordPress. Consequently, WordPress users can access thousands of quality themes designed to cover a wide range of purposes and needs.

Finding WordPress Themes: Your Time-Saving Guide

Let’s say you were to fire up Google and type the following:

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

Chances are that you are 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 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 post. 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, as these give you more freedom, more options and more control over your site’s web design.

Free vs Paid WordPress Themes

Next, it’s useful 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 are listed as Premium (paid) themes.

Theme Marketplaces And Directories Commercial And Independent WP Theme Developers

There are 2 kinds of places where themes can be found. The first type of place is in theme marketplaces and WP theme directories. The second place are the commercial and independent WordPress theme shops.

WordPress 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 bigger marketplaces 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 WP theme vendors typically design both free and paid WP themes, and can vary in size, from an individual developer or a small team of theme designer, to large web and theme design and development companies.

Most commercial or independent theme companies 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 WordPress Website Or Blog

WordPress.org

(WordPress.org – WordPress Themes Directory)

The official WordPress theme directory is the biggest and best place to find WP themes for free. In fact, it’s probably the only free WP theme directory you should use when looking for free WordPress 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 WP theme directory is not only a trustworthy and reputable place to download themes for your site, but it also relies on a review team to review and make sure that each theme uploaded to the directory meets specific quality and security standards.

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

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

You Don’t Even Have To Leave Your WordPress Dashboard

Useful Tip: You can easily browse through every WP theme in the WordPress theme directory and not only find what you are looking for, but also easily install and start using it directly from within your WP admin panel with a few mouse clicks.

Use The Theme Filters

WordPress has a built-in filtering function inside the admin area that lets you narrow down your search for themes based on criteria like Colours, Layout and Features …

This makes it easy to find what you are looking for. For example, you could search for themes with predominantly blue color design, with a 2-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 display correctly on all devices (e.g. your PC, tablet and smartphone) …

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

… and bring back only themes that have been built using “responsive” design standards …

Pros & Cons Of Using Free Themes

The obvious “pro” to using free WordPress themes is that it costs nothing 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 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 you shouldn’t expect the developer to provide dedicated support, especially if they are not getting paid. Most free themes ask for donations to help cover support costs.

When downloading free themes, therefore, check to see when the theme was last updated. If it’s been well over 1 year since any changes were made, then it’s best to think carefully about downloading it, as the theme may have been abandoned by its developer.

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 money on a theme. Who knows, the free theme you’ve downloaded could be exactly what works for you and your business.

Now that we’ve seen how to find free themes in the WordPress.org theme directory and how to narrow down your search for themes that meet specific requirements, let’s turn our attention to finding paid WordPress 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 great support, then search through the WordPress theme galleries of the “Premium” theme design agencies listed below:

Theme Directories

ThemeForest

ThemeForest is one of the biggest and best-known WP theme marketplaces online.

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

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

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

• Blog/Magazine – themes for general blogs and environmental blogs, etc.
• Corporate – themes suitable for legal sites or marketing purposes.
• Creative – themes suitable for design, galleries, etc.
• Directory Listings – themes suitable for sites related to employment opportunities, buy & sell, business directories, etc.
• eCommerce – themes for ecommerce, event bookings and registrations, etc.
• Education – themes that suit sites related to tutoring, etc.
• Entertainment – themes for film & tv blogs, cafes, etc.
• Mobile – e.g. mobile-switching 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 shops, trades or professionals (plumbers, chiropractors, etc.)
• Technology – themes related to software, newsletters, etc.
• Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and dating 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 sends you theme update notifications)

Browse thousands of great premium themes in the ThemeForest theme marketplace here:

• ThemeForest

Creative Market

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

Creative Market is another leading WP theme marketplace where you can browse 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 WordPress themes in its marketplace, but you can easily go through all of their themes for WordPress and narrow your search using theme categories from their dropdown “Themes” menu …

Browse through hundreds of great premium themes crafted by independent WP theme developers in the Creative Market marketplace here:

• Creative Market

Mojo Themes

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

Mojo is a marketplace 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 go through all of their themes for WordPress and narrow your search with theme categories (e.g. Blog or Business themes and theme frameworks, etc.) from the dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …

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

• Mojo

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

Commercial WP Theme Stores

SoloStream

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

(click on images above to browse all SoloStream themes)

Woo Themes

Woo Themes creates eye-catching premium themes and offers a membership option that lets you access all themes in their theme collection.

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

StoreFront

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

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

StudioPress

StudioPress builds WordPress themes based on a framework that allows you to quickly and easily build a professional and search optimized WordPress site, and provides an auto-updating design architecture, turn-key designs with beautiful frames for your content and unprecedented control of the framework.

Many website developers like 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 coding practices and to ensure that it is always compatible with the latest WordPress version, 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 StudioPress themes use something called “child themes,” which are like a paint job that sits on top of the 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 very easy to work with, just like all other WordPress themes. The great thing about choosing StudioPress themes 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 themes from StudioPress)

Theme-Checking Tools

Here are some useful WP theme-related tools worth knowing about:

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

What WordPress Theme Is That.com is a free web tool that allows you to easily detect what WP theme and plugins a website or blog 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 WordPress theme is being used on the site.

Tip: If you don’t know if a site uses WordPress or not, we have posted a a great tutorial that helps you tell if a website is WP-driven: The Easy Way To Tell If Your Web Site Runs On 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 powered by WordPress, but it will also list the WordPress theme being used and list any plugins detected.

• To use this tool go here: What WordPress Theme Is That
• To learn how to use this tool go here: How To Tell If Your Site Was Built Using WordPress

Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) – WP Plugin

A word of warning: If you decide to use FREE themes for your WordPress site, we highly recommend sticking with the approved themes listed in the official WordPress theme directory.

A commonly-used method employed by many hackers and cyber criminals is to put up sites and directories offering “Free” themes for WordPress all over the web and distribute themes with malicious code embedded in their files. In fact, some of these sites even display on Google’s search results for search phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free WordPress themes”” etc. It’s safer, therefore, to only download free themes from the official WordPress.org directory, or use established and reputable theme merchants.

If you are concerned about whether a WordPress theme installed on your blog could contain malware or unwanted code, use a free WordPress plugin like Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) to run a scan of your WordPress theme files. The plugin searches the source files of every installed theme on your site for signs of malicious code and presents you with a report with the results …

(TAC Report Page – Screenshot: Plugin)

We hope that you have found the information on how to find great WP useful.

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