In another post, we provide new WordPress users with a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.
If you haven’t yet discovered WP themes and what makes WP themes so revolutionary in terms of website design, then make sure to check out this post: An Introduction to WordPress Themes
In this article, we explain where to find loads of fantastic free and paid themes for your WP site. You will also learn about the different types of WP theme resources and get tips on how to ensure that you get the right themes for your needs and how to avoid experiencing problems like lack of customer support and poor coding.
As we’ve explained in another article, a WordPress theme is a special kind of web design template that is used on WordPress-driven sites and designed to work specifically with the WordPress platform in mind.
Many skilled web designers and web design houses create themes for WordPress. Consequently, members of the WP community have access to thousands of unique WP themes designed for a wide range of website uses.
Where To Find Great Responsive Themes For WordPress: How To Avoid Getting Overwhelmed
If you were to go to Google and search for key phrases like this:
- best WP themes
- best responsive themes for WordPress
- best responsive WordPress themes for authors (enter whatever your business, search topic or website is about)
Chances are that you are going to get an overwhelming amount of information to sort through in the search listings.
So, to help you save time and make your life 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 start, you need to know that WordPress offers both a hosted and a self-hosted version. We’ll explain these differences in another article. In this post, let’s just be focusing on finding 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 the design aspects of your site.
Free vs Paid Themes
Next, it’s useful to know that there are thousands of Free and Paid WordPress themes being made available. Free themes for WordPress are generally distributed as Free Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they will be sold as Premium (paid) themes.
WordPress Theme Marketplaces And Directories & WP Theme Vendors
There are mostly 2 places where WordPress themes can be found. The first type of place is in theme marketplaces and theme directories. The second are the commercial and independent theme houses.
Theme marketplaces and WP theme directories are big theme aggregators. WP 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 marketplace.
Some of the larger 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 also create both free and paid themes, and can vary in size, from an individual theme designer or a small team of theme developer, to large theme design 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 WordPress theme directories .
Let’s now show you where to search for great WP themes for your website or blog.
Where To Find Responsive WP Themes For Your Website Or Blog
WordPress.org
(WordPress.org – WP Theme Directory)
The official WordPress.org theme directory is the largest and best place to find WordPress themes for free. In fact, it’s probably the only free theme directory you should use when looking for free WordPress themes. The reason for this, 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 and even your entire business at risk.
The WordPress theme directory is not only a trustworthy and reputable place to download themes for your WP site, but it also uses a theme review team to review and ensure that each theme listed in the directory meets high quality and security standards.
To browse thousands of professionally-designed FREE WordPress themes from the official Themes Directory, go here:
http://www.wordpress.org/extend/themes
Find Themes Inside Your Dashboard
Useful Tip: You can easily browse through every theme in the WordPress.org directory and not only find what you are looking for, but also easily install and start using it directly from inside your WordPress dashboard with just a few clicks.
Use WordPress Theme Filtering
WordPress provides a 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 easier to find what you are looking for. For example, you could search for themes with predominantly orange color design, with a 3-column layout and a full-width template, or themes that support custom menus, etc.
Note: in an earlier article where we present an overview of WordPress themes and discuss the importance of using “responsive” themes, we explained how these allow your site to be viewed correctly on all devices (e.g. PCs, tablets and smartphones) …
It’s a good idea to use responsive themes, and the WordPress theme filtering function lets you do just that …
… and display only WordPress themes that use “responsive” design standards …
Pros & Cons Of Using Free Themes
The obvious “pro” to using free themes is that it costs nothing to download and use the theme on your site. Additionally, 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 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 theme developer to provide dedicated support, especially if they are not getting paid. Most free themes ask for donations to help cover costs of providing support.
When downloading free themes, therefore, check to see when the theme was last updated. If it’s been more than a year since any change was made, then it’s best to think twice about using it, as WordPress is frequently updated and new features 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 paid themes or even on custom theme design. Who knows, the theme you downloaded for free could be exactly what works for you and helps to convert your site visitors into customers.
Now that we’ve seen how to find free WP themes in the WordPress theme directory and how to narrow down your search for themes that meet your specific requirements, it’s time to turn our attention to premium 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, you can search through the WordPress theme galleries of the “Premium” theme design agencies listed below:
Theme Marketplaces
ThemeForest
ThemeForest is one of the largest and well known theme directories online.
ThemeForest allows many professional WordPress theme developers to showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are over 15,000 premium themes to choose from (you can find great themes 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 themes in a range of categories, such as:
- Blog/Magazine – themes for general blogs and administration sites, etc.
- Corporate – themes suitable for government sites or marketing purposes.
- Creative – themes for photography, kindle book authors, etc.
- Directory Listings – themes suitable for sites about employment opportunities, dining out & restaurants, community resources, etc.
- eCommerce – themes for online shopping, event bookings and registrations, etc.
- Education – themes that suit sites related to training, etc.
- Entertainment – themes for celebrity blogs, dining out, 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 (repairers, chiropractors, etc.)
- Technology – themes related to apps, landing pages, etc.
- Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and wedding advice blogs
- Miscellaneous – themes suitable for writing or discussing environmental 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 emails you theme update notifications)
Go here to browse many great premium WP themes in the ThemeForest theme directory:
Creative Market
(click on the images above to see all themes on Creative Market)
Creative Market is another leading WP theme marketplace where you can browse many quality premium WordPress 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 directory, but you can easily go through all of their WordPress themes and narrow your search using theme categories using the site’s dropdown “Themes” menu …
Browse through hundreds of great themes crafted by independent WP theme designers in the Creative Market marketplace here:
Mojo Themes
(click on the above images to see more Mojo themes)
Mojo is a marketplace 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 find WP themes and search through their theme categories (e.g. Responsive or eCommerce themes and theme frameworks, etc.) using the dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …
Visit the site to find great premium WordPress themes in the Mojo marketplace here:
Now that we have looked at WordPress theme marketplaces, let’s take a look at commercial theme stores.
Commercial Theme Shops
SoloStream
SoloStream provides WordPress users with a selection of professional quality themes and the option of accessing all themes through a WordPress theme membership.
(click on images above to view more SoloStream themes)
Woo Themes
Woo Themes creates functional premium themes that are very popular and highly sought after by website users and also offer a membership option that allows you access to all themes in their growing WordPress theme collection.
(click on the images above to view all themes from WooThemes)
StoreFront
StoreFront Themes 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 above images to see more themes from StoreFront)
StudioPress
StudioPress builds WordPress themes based on a framework (called the “Genesis” 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 site designs with beautiful frames for the 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 frequently up-to-date to reflect best coding practices and to ensure that themes remain always compatible with the latest WordPress version, but because you can update themes built using the Genesis framework without losing any customizations you 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 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 themes from StudioPress 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 images above to browse more StudioPress themes)
WordPress Theme-Checking Tools
Let’s finish this post with a few more useful WordPress theme-related tools worth knowing about:
What WP Theme Is That WP Theme Checker
What WordPress Theme Is That? is a free online tool that allows you to easily detect what WordPress theme and plugins a site is using.
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 whether a site uses WordPress or not, we have published a a great tutorial that helps you tell if a site uses the WP CMS platform: How To Check If A Site Was Built Using 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 whether or not a site is built using the WP CMS platform, but it will also list the theme being used and list any plugins detected.
- To use the online tool visit the website here: What WordPress Theme Is That?
- To learn how to use this tool go here: Tell-Tale Signs It’s A WordPress Web Site And WP-Checking Tools
Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC)
We suggested this earlier and it’s worth repeating it again: When choosing FREE themes for your WordPress site, we recommend sticking with the approved WordPress themes listed in the official WordPress theme directory.
A well-known tactic used by many hacking groups and cyber criminals is to put up websites offering “Free” themes for WordPress all over the web and distribute modified themes and plugins that contain malicious code. In fact, some of these sites even come up on Google for search phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free themes for WordPress”” etc. It’s safer, therefore, to stick with the official WordPress repository, or use established and reputable sites.
If you are concerned about whether a WordPress theme installed on your blog could 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 searches the source files of every them you have installed on your site for signs of injected code and presents you with a report with the results …
(Theme Authenticity Checker Report Page – Source: Plugin)
We hope that you have found this information useful.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)
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