Where To Find The Best WordPress Themes

In a previous article, we have written a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.

If you haven’t yet discovered themes and what makes themes so attractive to website owners, then make sure to check out our article here: An Overview of WordPress Themes

In this article, we explain where to look for free and paid themes for your WP website. 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 avoid dealing with problems like lack of customer support and poor coding.

As we’ve explained in another post, a WordPress theme is a unique kind of web design template that is used on WordPress-driven sites and designed to work specifically with the WordPress CMS platform in mind.

Many website designers and website design houses create themes for WordPress. Consequently, WordPress users can access thousands of professional-quality themes designed to cover many purposes and needs.

Where To Find Responsive Themes: Let’s Keep Things Simple!

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

• best free WP themes
• best free themes for WordPress
• best free WordPress themes for business (type in whatever your business, search topic or website is about)

You are probably going to get an overwhelming amount of information to sort through in the 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 need to know that WordPress offers both a hosted and a self-hosted version. We’ll cover these differences in a later article. To keep things simple, we’ll only be focusing 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 your web design.

Free vs Paid Themes

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

WordPress Theme Directories Commercial And Independent Theme Design Houses

There are mostly 2 places where you can find themes. The first type of place is in theme marketplaces and theme directories. The second are the commercial and independent WP theme vendors.

Theme marketplaces and WP 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 visitors 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 WordPress plugins and templates for other web applications (e.g. Joomla, Drupal, etc.)

Commercial and independent WP theme stores can also develop both free and commercial themes, and can vary in size, from an individual theme developer or a small team of theme designer, to large web and theme development companies.

Most commercial 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 WP theme directories .

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

Choosing The Best Themes For Your Website Or Blog

WordPress.org

(WordPress.org – WP Themes Directory)

The official WordPress theme directory is the biggest and best place to find free WordPress themes. In fact, it’s probably the only free 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 contain malicious code and put your computer, digital presence and 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 uses a theme review team comprised of dedicated and code-savvy volunteers to review and make sure that each theme in the directory meets specific standards of quality and security.

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

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

Find Themes Inside Your WordPress Dashboard

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

Use The 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 a light 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 using “responsive” themes, we explained how responsive themes allow your site to be viewed without problems on all devices (e.g. laptops, tablets and smartphones) …

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

… and find only WP themes that are “responsive” …

Pros & Cons Of Using Free WordPress Themes

The obvious “pro” to using free themes is that it costs nothing to download and use the theme. Additionally, many free themes are professionally designed and come with a number of customizable features, 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 you shouldn’t expect the theme 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 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 well over one year since any updates were last made, then it’s best to think twice about using 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 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 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 premium themes.

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

WP Theme Marketplaces

ThemeForest

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

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

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

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

• Blog/Magazine – themes for personal blogs and parenting blogs, etc.
• Corporate – themes suitable for business sites or advertising purposes.
• Creative – themes for design, writers, etc.
• Directory Listings – themes that suit sites about travel, buy & sell, business directories, etc.
• eCommerce – themes for online shopping, event bookings and registrations, etc.
• Education – themes that suit sites related to teaching, etc.
• Entertainment – themes for fashion 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 retail stores, trades or professionals (electricians, legal firms, etc.)
• Technology – themes related to hosting, newsletters, etc.
• Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and dating advice blogs
• Miscellaneous – themes suitable for writing or discussing political issues, 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)

Go here to browse many quality premium WordPress themes in the ThemeForest directory:

• ThemeForest

Creative Market

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

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

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

• Creative Market

Mojo Themes

(click on the images above to see more WP themes at Mojo.com)

Mojo is a directory 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 WordPress themes, but you can easily find WordPress themes and search through their theme categories from the dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …

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

• Mojo

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

Commercial Theme Design Houses

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 see more themes from SoloStream)

Woo Themes

Woo Themes creates eye-catching premium themes that are very popular and highly sought after by web users and also offer a membership option that gives you access to all themes in their growing WP theme collection.

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

StoreFront

StoreFront Themes creates beautiful 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 view more StoreFront themes)

StudioPress

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

Many website developers like this framework not only because it’s well-coded and well-supported (the development team at StudioPress keeps the framework frequently updated to reflect best practices for coding and to ensure that it is always compatible with the latest WordPress version, 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 theme framework and gives your site its unique look and feel.

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

WordPress Theme-Checking Tools

Here are a couple of useful WordPress theme-related tools worth knowing about:

What WordPress Theme Is That – WP Theme And Plugin Search Tool

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

Tip: If you don’t know if a site uses WordPress or not, we have published a a great tutorial that helps you tell whether or not a site uses the WP CMS platform: 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 not only confirm if a site is built on WordPress software, but it will also list the theme being used by the site 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: Is It A WordPress Site?

Theme Authenticity Checker - Plugin

We suggested this earlier and it’s worth repeating it again: 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 repository.

A tactic that is commonly used by many hackers and networks that engage in cyber criminal activities is to put up sites and directories offering “Free” themes for WordPress all over the web and then distribute modified 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 safer, therefore, to only download free themes from the official WordPress directory, or use well-known and reputable theme merchants.

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

(TAC Report Page – Screenshot: Plugin)

We hope that you have found this information useful.

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