In a previous post, we provide new WordPress users with a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.
If you haven’t yet discovered WordPress themes and what makes themes so special, then make sure to check out the post here: About WP Themes – A Newbies’ Guide
In this blog post, we will show you where to explore many fantastic 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 ensure that you get the right themes for your needs and avoid dealing with problems like lack of support and poor theme coding.
As explained in another article, a WordPress theme is a special type of web template used on WordPress-driven sites and designed specifically in WordPress.
Many skilled web designers and web development houses create themes for WordPress. Consequently, WordPress users can access thousands of great WP themes covering an extensive range of uses and applications.
Where To Find Responsive WP Themes: Your Time-Saving Guide
If you were to launch Google and type the following:
- best responsive themes for WordPress
- best paid themes for WordPress
- best paid WordPress themes for writers (or whatever your business, search topic or website 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 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 both a hosted and a self-hosted version. We’ll explain these differences in a separate post. In this post, we’ll only be covering 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 the design of your website.
Free vs Paid WordPress Themes
Next, it’s important to know that you will easily find many Free and Paid themes made available. Free themes are normally distributed as Free Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they are listed as Premium (paid) themes.
WP Theme Marketplaces And Directories vs Theme Agencies
There are mostly two types of places where you can find WP themes. The first type of place is in WordPress theme marketplaces and theme directories. The second type of place are the commercial and independent WP theme vendors.
WP theme marketplaces and theme directories are large theme aggregators. WP theme developers (both commercial and independent) list their themes (both free and paid) in the marketplace or directory and visitors search 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 theme developers typically create both free and premium WP themes, and can vary in size, from an individual theme developer or a small team of developer, to large theme development companies.
As you will see, most commercial 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 WP theme directories .
Let’s now show you where to find the best themes for your website or blog.
Choosing Themes For Your Website Or Blog
WordPress.org
(WordPress.org – WordPress Theme Directory)
The official WordPress theme directory is the largest and best place to search for WordPress themes for free. In fact, it’s probably the only free WP theme directory you should use when looking for free WP themes. The reason for this, is because –as some free software users have discovered– 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 directory is not only a trustworthy and reputable place to download themes for your WordPress site, but it also relies on a theme review team to review and make sure that each theme listed in the directory meets their standards of quality and security.
To browse thousands of excellent FREE WordPress themes from the official WP Themes Repository, go here:
http://www.wordpress.org/extend/themes
Find Themes Inside Your WP Dashboard
Useful Tip: You can easily browse through every WP theme in the WordPress.org theme directory and not only find what you are looking for, but also easily install and activate it directly from inside your WP admin panel with just a few mouse clicks.
Use The WordPress Theme Filters
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 easy to find what you are looking for. For example, you could search for themes with a orange color design, with a four-column layout and a full-width template, or themes that support custom menus, etc.
Note: in another post where we present an overview of WordPress themes and discuss the importance of using “responsive” themes, we explained how these ensure that your theme will display correctly on all devices (e.g. laptops, tablets and smartphones) …
It’s a good idea to use responsive themes, and the WordPress theme filter lets you search across its entire database of free themes …
… and bring up only themes that use “responsive” design standards …
Pros & Cons Of Using Free WordPress Themes
The obvious “pro” to using free WP themes is that it costs nothing to download and use the theme on your site. An added plus, is that 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 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 immediate support, especially if they are not getting paid. Most freely distributed themes ask for donations to help cover their costs of providing support.
When downloading free themes, therefore, check to see when the theme was last updated. If it’s been well over a year since any changes were made, then we advise you to think carefully about using it, as the theme may have been abandoned by its developer.
If you’re just getting started and your website 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 may just be the thing that works for you and for your business.
Now that we’ve seen how to find free themes in the WordPress theme directory and how 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 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 best-known WP theme directories online.
ThemeForest allows many professional WP theme developers to showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are over 17,500 premium WordPress themes to choose from (some starting from as little as $3) …
(click on the images above to browse more themes on ThemeForest)
If you visit the ThemeForest theme directory, you will be able to browse for specific WordPress themes in a range of categories, such as:
- Blog/Magazine – themes for bloggers and green living blogs, etc.
- Corporate – themes suitable for medical sites or advertising purposes.
- Creative – themes suitable for portfolios, crafts, etc.
- Directory Listings – themes suitable for sites about travel, holiday rentals, business directories, etc.
- eCommerce – themes for selling products online, membership sites, etc.
- Education – themes that suit sites related to teaching, etc.
- Entertainment – themes for gossip blogs, cafes, etc.
- Mobile – e.g. mobile-switching 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 (plumbers, dentists, etc.)
- Technology – themes related to apps, landing pages, etc.
- Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and marriage consellor blogs
- Miscellaneous – themes suitable for topics related to activism, 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 find great themes in the ThemeForest themes marketplace:
Creative Market
(click on the above images to browse more Creative Market themes)
Creative Market is another leading WordPress theme directory where you can search through 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 find themes for WordPress and narrow your search using theme categories (e.g. Landing Page or Commerce themes, etc.) from the site’s dropdown “Themes” menu …
Browse through hundreds of great premium themes crafted by independent WP theme developers in the Creative Market directory here:
Mojo Themes
(click on the above images to see all Mojo themes)
Mojo is a directory for premium-quality 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 WP themes, but you can easily go through all of their WP themes and search through their theme categories (e.g. Magazine or Business themes and theme frameworks, etc.) by choosing the site’s 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 and independent theme design companies.
Commercial And Independent WP Theme Vendors
SoloStream
SoloStream provides WordPress users with a selection of high quality themes and the option of accessing all themes through a WordPress theme membership.
(click on images above to browse all themes from SoloStream)
Woo Themes
Woo Themes creates functional themes that are very popular and highly sought after by web users and also offer a membership option that allows members access to all themes in their growing WordPress theme portfolio.
(click on the images above to view all themes from WooThemes)
StoreFront
StoreFront Themes specializes in creating WP 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 more StoreFront themes)
StudioPress
StudioPress provides WordPress themes based on a framework that allows users 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 prefer using this framework not only because it’s well-coded and well-supported (the development team at StudioPress keeps this framework frequently updated to reflect best practices for coding and to make sure that it is 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 “skins” that sit on top of the framework and gives your site its unique design.
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 StudioPress themes 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 browse more themes from StudioPress)
WordPress Theme-Checking Tools
To round things up, here are a few more useful WP theme-related tools worth keeping in mind:
What WP Theme Is That? – WordPress Theme Checker
What WordPress Theme Is That.com is a free WordPress theme-checking tool that lets you easily detect what WordPress theme and plugins a website uses.
This is a great resource if you ever come across a WordPress site that you like and would like to know what WP theme the website is using.
Tip: If you can’t tell whether a site uses WordPress or not, go here for a great tutorial that helps you tell whether or not a website was built using WordPress: How To Tell If A Web 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 then not only confirm if the site has been built on the WordPress CMS platform, but it will also list the theme being used and list any plugins detected.
- To use the tool go here: What WordPress Theme Is That
- To learn more about using this tool go here: Is It A WordPress Web Site?
Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC)
A word of warning: If you decide to use FREE themes for your WordPress site, we strongly recommend sticking with the approved themes listed in the official WordPress theme directory.
A well-known tactic 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 modified themes and plugins containing malicious code. In fact, some of these sites even come up on Google’s search results for key phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free WordPress themes”” etc. It’s safer, therefore, to only download free themes from the official WordPress.org directory, or use established and trusted theme download sites.
If you are concerned about whether a WordPress theme installed on your site could contain potentially malicious or unwanted code, you can use a free WordPress plugin like Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) to run a scan of your theme files. The plugin scans the source files of every installed theme on your site for signs of malicious code and outputs a report as shown in the screenshot below …
(Theme Authenticity Checker Report Page – Screenshot: WordPress.org Plugin)
We hope that you have found the information on how to find great free and paid responsive themes for WordPress useful.
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