Where To Find The Best WordPress Themes

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

If you would like to learn more about themes and what makes themes so attractive to web site owners, then make sure to check out our post here: A Beginner’s Guide To WordPress Themes

In this article, we will show you where to search for free and paid themes for your WP website. 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 poorly-coded themes.

As explained in our previous article, a WordPress theme is a special kind of web template used on WordPress-powered sites and designed specifically with the WordPress content management system in mind.

Many individual web designers and web development houses create themes for WordPress. Consequently, members of the WordPress community enjoy access to thousands of professional-quality WP themes covering a wide-range of uses and applications.

Finding Great WP Themes: So Many Choices … Where To Begin?

If you were to browse over to Google and type the following:

• best premium WordPress themes
• best premium WordPress themes
• best free WordPress themes for writers (enter whatever your business, search topic or website 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 things easier, we’ll 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 should know that WordPress offers users both a hosted and a self-hosted version. We’ll cover these differences in another article. In this article, please note that we will only 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 of your blog.

Free vs Paid WordPress Themes

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

WordPress Theme Marketplaces And Directories vs Theme Shops

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

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

Some of the bigger directories 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 agencies can design both free and premium WP themes, and can vary in size, from an individual developer or a small team of theme developer, to large web and theme design companies.

As you will see, many commercial or independent theme stores sell 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 search for the best WordPress themes for your blog.

Choosing Great WP Themes For Your Website Or Blog

WordPress.org

(WordPress.org – Theme Directory)

The official WordPress theme directory is the largest and best place to download free WordPress themes. In fact, it’s probably the only free directory you should use when looking for free WordPress 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 put 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 site, but it also uses a review team to review and ensure that each theme listed in the directory complies with certain quality and security standards.

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

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

Search For Free Themes Inside Your Own WordPress Dashboard

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

Use The WP Theme Filtering

WordPress has a built-in 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 easy to find what you are looking for. For example, you could search for themes with a dark color design, with a 4-column layout and a full-width template, or themes that support custom menus, etc.

Note: in an earlier post where we present an overview of WordPress themes and discuss the importance of choosing “responsive” themes, we explained how responsive themes ensure that your theme will work across all devices (e.g. your computer, 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 up only WordPress themes that are “responsive” …

Pros & Cons Of Using Free Themes

The obvious “pro” to using free WordPress themes is that it costs you nothing to download and use the theme. 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 ”cons” 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 developer to provide immediate support, especially if they are not getting paid. Most free themes ask for donations to help cover their 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 over 1 year since any change was last made, then think carefully about using it, as WordPress changes quite often and these changes can create conflicts and errors with older code.

If you’re just getting started and your website or blog 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 paid 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 WP themes in the WordPress.org theme directory and how to filter your search for themes that meet specific criteria, it’s time to turn our attention to paid themes.

Paid 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 Directories

ThemeForest

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

ThemeForest lets many professional WordPress theme developers showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are currently over 17,000 premium WP themes listed (some starting from as little as $3) …

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

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

• Blog/Magazine – themes for general blogs and administration sites, etc.
• Corporate – themes suitable for medical sites and advertising purposes.
• Creative – themes suitable for visual galleries, ebook authors, etc.
• Directory Listings – themes that suit sites about travel, holiday rentals, social directories, etc.
• eCommerce – themes for online shopping, event bookings and registrations, etc.
• Education – themes that suit sites related to teaching, etc.
• Entertainment – themes for photo gallery blogs, nightlife, etc.
• Mobile – e.g. retina-ready themes.
• NonProfit – themes for nonprofit organizations, churches, etc.
• Real Estate – themes for real estate and real estate listings (e.g. rentals, etc.)
• Retail – themes for specialty stores, trades or professionals (plumbers, medical centers, etc.)
• Technology – themes related to technology, landing pages, etc.
• Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and dating advice 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 thousands of great themes in the ThemeForest theme directory here:

• ThemeForest

Creative Market

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

Creative Market is another leading WordPress 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 WordPress themes in its directory, but you can easily browse hundreds of themes for WordPress and narrow your search using theme categories from the site’s dropdown “Themes” menu …

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

• Creative Market

Mojo Themes

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

Mojo is a directory for premium-quality 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 WP themes, but you can easily browse hundreds of themes for WordPress and search through their theme categories using the site’s dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …

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

• Mojo

Now that we have looked at WordPress theme directories, let’s look at commercial theme design companies.

Commercial And Independent WP 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 all themes from SoloStream)

Woo Themes

Woo Themes creates functional themes for WordPress and offer a membership option that lets you access all themes in their growing theme collection.

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

StoreFront

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

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

StudioPress

StudioPress provides WordPress themes based on a framework that allows you to 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 your 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 the framework consistently updated to reflect best practices for coding and to make sure that themes remain always compatible with the latest version of WordPress, but because you can update your themes 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 design.

If this all sounds too technical, don’t worry about it. StudioPress themes are 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 more StudioPress themes)

WP Theme-Checking Tools

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

What WordPress Theme Is That?

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

Tip: If you don’t know if a site uses WordPress or not, we have published a a great tutorial that shows you how to tell whether or not a site was built using WordPress: Is Your Site Powered By 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 then not only confirm whether or not a site was built on WordPress software, but it will also list the WordPress theme being used by the site and list any WP plugins detected.

• To use this online tool go here: What WordPress Theme Is That?
• To learn more about this tool go here: Is It A WP Website?

Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) – WordPress Plugin

We suggested this before and it’s worth repeating again: If you decide to use FREE themes for your WordPress site, we recommend sticking with the WordPress themes listed in the official WordPress theme repository.

A well-known strategy used by a number of hackers and syndicates that engage in cyber-crime is to put up sites offering “Free” WordPress themes all over the web and then distribute modified themes containing malicious code. In fact, some of these sites even display on search engine results for key phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free themes for WordPress”” etc. It’s safer, therefore, to stick with the official WordPress directory, or use well-known and reputable theme merchants.

If you have any concerns about whether a WordPress theme installed on your site could contain potentially malicious or unwanted code, use a free WordPress plugin like Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) to scan your WP theme files. The plugin searches the source files of every installed theme on your site for signs of suspicious code and presents you with a report as shown in the screenshot below …

(Theme Authenticity Checker Report Page – Source: Plugin)

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

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