Where To Find The Best WordPress Themes

In a separate post, we provide new WordPress users with a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.

If you haven’t yet discovered WP themes and what makes themes unique, then go here to read our post: Understanding WP Themes – A Non-Technical User’s Guide

In this article, you will learn where you can look for free and paid themes for your 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 customer support and poorly-coded themes.

As we’ve explained in another article, a theme is a unique type of web template used on WordPress-powered blogs and designed to work specifically in the WordPress platform.

Many individual web designers and website design houses create themes for WordPress. Consequently, WordPress users enjoy access to thousands of unique themes designed to cover a wide range of purposes and needs.

Finding Responsive Themes For WordPress: Let’s Keep It Simple!

Let’s say you were to fire up Google and search for something like this:

• best free themes for WordPress
• best paid WordPress themes
• best free WordPress themes for blogs (or whatever your business, search topic or blog is about)

Chances are that you are going to get an overwhelming amount of information to sort through in your 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 WP 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 explain these differences in a separate article. To keep things simple, we’ll only cover the topic of 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 important to know that there are both Free and Paid themes made available. Free themes for WordPress are generally distributed as Free Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they are sold as Premium (paid) themes.

WP Theme Directories Commercial And Independent Theme Agencies

There are two kinds of places where themes can be found. The first place is in theme marketplaces and WordPress theme directories. The second place are the commercial and independent WordPress theme development firms.

Theme marketplaces and theme directories are large aggregators of themes. WordPress 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 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 vendors can also create both free and paid WordPress themes, and can vary in size, from an individual developer or a small team of theme developer, to large theme development companies.

As you will see, most 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 directories .

Let’s now show you where to find great themes for your blog.

Where To Find Responsive Themes For Your WP Website

WordPress.org

(WordPress.org – Themes Directory)

The official WordPress 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 why, is because –as some free software users have learned– 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 directory is not only a trustworthy and reputable place to download themes for your site, but it also uses a theme review team to review and ensure that each theme uploaded to the directory complies with high quality and security standards.

To browse thousands of great-looking FREE WordPress themes from the official WordPress 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 theme in the WordPress theme directory and not only find what you are looking for, but also easily install and activate it directly from inside your WordPress dashboard with just a couple of mouse clicks.

Use 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 easier to find themes with specific features. For example, you could search for themes with a light color design, with a three-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 choosing “responsive” WP themes, we explained how these ensure that your theme will display without problems across all devices (e.g. the laptops, smartphones and tablets used by visitors to browse your information) …

It’s a good idea to use responsive themes, and the WordPress theme filtering option lets you do just that …

… and bring up only themes that use “responsive” design standards …

Pros & Cons Of Using Free WordPress Themes

The obvious “pro” to using free themes is that it’s free to download and use the theme. Additionally, many free themes are professionally designed and offer a number of built-in customizable features, 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 theme developer to provide personal support, especially if they are not getting paid. Many free 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 1 year since any change was made, then we advise you to think twice about downloading it, as the WordPress software changes quite often and these changes can create conflicts and errors with older code.

If you’re just getting started and your website is still quite new, there is nothing wrong with using 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 premium themes or even on custom web design. Who knows, the theme you downloaded for free could be exactly what works for your site and for your business.

Now that we’ve seen how to find free themes in the WordPress theme directory and how to filter your search for themes that meet specific criteria, let’s turn our attention to finding paid themes.

Premium WP 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 responsive 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 biggest and most popular WordPress theme directories online.

ThemeForest allows many professional WordPress theme developers to showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are well over 17,000 premium themes to choose from (you can find great themes from as little as $3) …

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

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

• Blog/Magazine – themes for bloggers and parenting blogs, etc.
• Corporate – themes suitable for corporate sites and marketing purposes.
• Creative – themes for creative work, writing professionals, etc.
• Directory Listings – themes suitable for sites about directory listings, holiday rentals, community resources, etc.
• eCommerce – themes for online shopping, event bookings and registrations, etc.
• Education – themes that suit sites related to tutoring, etc.
• Entertainment – themes for film & tv blogs, dining out, 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 specialty stores, trades or professionals (repairers, medical centers, etc.)
• Technology – themes related to apps, landing pages, etc.
• Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and wedding 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 sends you theme update notifications)

Browse lots of great premium themes in the ThemeForest directory here:

• ThemeForest

Creative Market

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

Creative Market is another leading WP theme directory where you can search through thousands of 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 WordPress themes in its directory, but you can easily browse hundreds of WordPress themes and search through their theme categories (e.g. Landing Page or Popular themes, etc.) from their dropdown “Themes” menu …

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

• Creative Market

Mojo Themes

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

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 WordPress themes and search through their theme categories by choosing the site’s dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …

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

• Mojo

Now that we have looked at WP theme marketplaces, let’s take a look at commercial and independent WordPress theme agencies.

Commercial Theme Development Firms

SoloStream

SoloStream provides WordPress users with a selection of high quality premium WordPress 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 designs stunning themes for WordPress and offers a membership option that gives you access to all themes in their WP theme collection.

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

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 all themes from StoreFront)

StudioPress

StudioPress designs WordPress themes based on a framework (called the “Genesis” 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 site designs with beautiful frames for the content and unprecedented control of the framework.

Many web developers prefer using 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 coding practices and to make sure 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 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 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 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)

Theme-Checking Tools

Let’s finish this post with some useful WordPress theme-related tools worth keeping in mind:

What WordPress Theme Is That? – WordPress Theme Checker

What WordPress Theme Is That.com is a free WordPress theme and plugin-checking tool that allows you to easily detect what WP theme a website or blog uses (including parent and child WordPress 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 the site uses.

Tip: If you don’t know whether a site runs on WordPress or not, we have posted a a great tutorial that helps you tell if a site is WP-driven: Is My Site 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 the site is built using WordPress, but it will also list the theme being used and list any WP plugins it detects.

• To use the tool go here: What WordPress Theme Is That.com
• To learn more about this tool go here: Is It A WP Web Site?

Theme Authenticity Checker - Plugin

We said 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 reviewed and approved WordPress themes listed in the official WordPress theme repository.

A method that is commonly used by many hacking groups and networks that engage in cyber criminal activities is to put up sites offering “Free” themes for WordPress all over the web and distribute themes and plugins 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 themes for WordPress”” etc. It’s best, therefore, to stick with the official WordPress directory, or use established and trusted theme vendors.

If you are in doubt about whether a WordPress theme that you have installed on your blog may be infected with potentially malicious or unwanted code, use a free WordPress plugin like Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) to scan your WordPress theme files. This plugin scans the source files of every installed theme on your site for signs of suspicious code and outputs a report as shown in the screenshot below …

(Theme Authenticity Checker Report Page – Source: WordPress.org Plugin Site)

We hope that you have found the information on how to find great WordPress free and paid responsive themes useful.

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