Where To Find The Best WordPress Themes

In another article, we provide new WordPress users with a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.

If you would like to know more about the benefits of using themes and what makes WordPress themes unique, then make sure to check out this post: An Overview of WordPress Themes

In this blog post, you will learn where to look for free and paid themes for your 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 having to deal 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 template used on WordPress-driven websites and blogs and designed specifically with WordPress in mind.

Many professional website designers and web design houses create themes for WordPress. Consequently, members of the WP community have access to thousands of unique themes designed for a wide range of purposes and needs.

Finding Great Great Themes For WordPress: Your Time-Saving Guide

If you were to go to Google and search for the following:

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

You are probably going to get an overwhelming amount of disorganized information to sort through in the 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 really simple.

WordPress.com vs WordPress.org Themes

Before we start, you need to know that WordPress offers both a hosted and a self-hosted version. We’ll cover these differences in a later article. In this post, we’ll 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 site.

Free vs Paid WP Themes

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

WP Theme Marketplaces vs WP Theme Vendors

There are mostly two kinds of places where you can find themes. The first is in WP theme marketplaces and theme directories. The second are the commercial and independent theme development firms.

WordPress theme marketplaces and WordPress 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 find these just like they would if they were shopping for apps on an app store or software marketplace.

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

Many commercial or independent theme shops 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 directories .

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

Where To Find A Great Theme Themes For Your Website Or Blog

WordPress.org

(WordPress.org – Themes Directory)

The official WordPress.org theme directory is the largest and best place to download free WP themes. In fact, it’s probably the only free directory you should use when looking for free WordPress 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 place your computer, digital presence and even your entire business at risk.

The WordPress theme directory is not only a trustworthy and reputable place to download themes for your website, but it also uses a review team to review and ensure that each theme uploaded to the directory complies with specific standards of quality and security.

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

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

Find WordPress Themes Inside Your Dashboard

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

Use The Theme Filtering

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 predominantly orange colour design, with a three-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 choosing “responsive” WP themes, we explained how responsive themes ensure that your theme will display without problems on all devices (e.g. your visitors’ computers, tablets and smartphones) …

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

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

Pros & Cons Of Using Free WordPress Themes

The obvious “pro” to using free WordPress themes is that there is no cost to download and use the theme. Additionally, many free themes are professionally designed and offer a number of customizable settings, giving you great flexibility and choice in how you configure all of its various layout elements.

The downside to using free WordPress 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. Many free themes will ask you for a donation to help cover their support costs.

When downloading free themes, therefore, check to see when the theme was last updated. If it’s been over one year since any updates were last made, then think twice about using it, as WordPress is frequently updated and these changes can result in conflicts and errors with older code.

If you’re just getting started and your site 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 any 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 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 premium WP themes.

Paid 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, then 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 WP theme marketplaces online.

ThemeForest allows many professional WordPress theme developers to showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are currently over 15,000 premium WP themes to choose from (you can find great themes from as little as $3) …

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

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 personal blogs and environmental blogs, etc.
• Corporate – themes suitable for business sites or marketing purposes.
• Creative – themes suitable for visual galleries, freelancers, etc.
• Directory Listings – themes ideal for sites related to travel, holiday rentals, tourism directories, etc.
• eCommerce – themes for ecommerce, event bookings and registrations, etc.
• Education – themes that suit sites related to teaching, etc.
• Entertainment – themes for entertainment blogs, nightlife, etc.
• Mobile – e.g. mobile-switching 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, dental practitioners, etc.)
• Technology – themes related to hosting, landing pages, etc.
• Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and romance tips and advice blogs
• Miscellaneous – themes suitable for writing or discussing environmental 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 thousands of great premium themes in the ThemeForest marketplace here:

• ThemeForest

Creative Market

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

Creative Market is another leading WordPress theme directory where you can search through 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 from the site’s dropdown “Themes” menu …

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

• Creative Market

Mojo Themes

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

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 WordPress themes, but you can easily find themes for WordPress and narrow your search with theme categories by selecting the dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …

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

• Mojo

Now that we have looked at WordPress theme aggregators, let’s take a look at commercial WordPress theme stores.

Commercial And Independent Theme Agencies

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 all themes from SoloStream)

Woo Themes

Woo Themes designs great themes for WordPress that are very popular and highly sought after by website users and offer a membership option that gives you access to all themes in their WP theme portfolio.

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

StoreFront

StoreFront specializes in creating 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 all themes from StoreFront)

StudioPress

StudioPress builds WordPress themes based on a framework that lets you 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 regularly updated to reflect best coding practices and to ensure that it always remains 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 themes built using the Genesis framework 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 all 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 browse more themes from StudioPress)

Theme-Checking Tools

Here are a few more useful WP theme-related tools worth keeping in mind:

What WordPress Theme Is That?

What WordPress Theme Is That is a free web tool that lets you easily detect what WordPress theme a website uses (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 WP theme is being used on the site.

Tip: If you don’t know if a site runs on WordPress or not, we have posted a a great tutorial that shows you how to tell if a website is WP-driven: Tell-Tale Signs It’s A WordPress Web Site And WordPress-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 not only confirm whether or not a site has been built using the WP CMS platform, but it will also list the theme being used by the site and list any plugins detected.

• To use this online tool go here: What WordPress Theme Is That?
• To learn how to use this tool go here: The Easy Way To Tell If Your Website Runs On WordPress

Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) – Plugin

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

A well-known tactic used by a number of hackers and cyber criminals is to put up websites 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 come up 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 directory, or use well-known and trusted theme download sites.

If you are in doubt about whether a WordPress theme installed on your blog could be infected with potentially malicious or unwanted code, you can 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 injected code and outputs a report with the results …

(TAC Report Page – Source: Plugin)

I hope that you have found the information on how to find the best WP free and paid responsive themes useful.

***

***