Where To Find The Best WordPress Themes

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

If you would like to learn more about themes and what makes WordPress themes unique, then make sure to check out our article: About WP Themes – A Newbies’ Guide

In this blog post, you will learn where you can search for free and paid themes for your WordPress site. 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 experiencing problems like lack of customer support and poor coding.

As explained in our previous article, a theme is a special kind of web template that is used on WordPress-driven sites and designed to work specifically with the WP content management system in mind.

Many skilled website designers and web design firms create themes for WordPress. Consequently, members of the WordPress community have access to thousands of professional-quality themes designed for a wide range of purposes.

Where To Find WordPress Themes: Too Much Information … Where To Begin?

If you were to go to Google and search for a key phrase like this:

• best free WordPress themes
• best free themes for WordPress
• best responsive WordPress themes for artists (enter whatever your business, area of interest 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, 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 start, you should know that WordPress offers users both a hosted and a self-hosted version. We’ll explain these differences in another post. For now, please note that we will only be covering themes for the self-hosted version of WordPress (WordPress.org) in this article, which gives 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 thousands of Free and Paid WordPress themes being made available. Free themes are normally distributed as Free Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they are sold as Premium (paid) themes.

WP Theme Marketplaces Commercial And Independent WP Theme Development Firms

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

Theme marketplaces and WP theme directories are big theme aggregators. WordPress 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 marketplaces don’t just sell WordPress themes. They can also sell WP plugins and templates for other web applications (e.g. Joomla, Drupal, etc.)

Commercial and independent theme developers typically will develop both free and premium WordPress themes, and can vary in size, from an individual theme designer or a small team of designer, to large web and theme design companies.

As you will see, many 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 search for great themes for your website.

Where To Find The Best Themes For Your Website Or Blog

WordPress.org

(WordPress.org – Themes Directory)

The official WordPress theme directory is the largest and best place to download WP themes for free. 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 put 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 site, but it also relies on a team of theme reviewers to review and ensure that each theme in the directory complies with high 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

You Don’t Even Have To Leave Your WP Dashboard

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

Use The WP Theme Filters

WordPress provides a filtering function inside the admin area that lets you narrow down your search for themes based on criteria like Colours, Layout and Features …

This makes it easier to find what you are looking for. For example, you could search for themes with predominantly blue color design, with a 4-column layout and a full-width template, or themes that support custom menus, etc.

Note: in another post where we discuss the importance of choosing “responsive” WP themes, we explained how responsive themes allow your site to be viewed correctly across all devices (e.g. your PC, smartphone and tablet) …

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

… and find only WordPress 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 on your site. An added plus, is that 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 ”cons” of 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 developer to provide urgent support, especially if they are not getting paid. Most freely distributed themes ask users for donations to help cover 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 more than 1 year since any updates were made, then you should 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 premium theme. Who knows, the free theme you’ve downloaded may just be the thing that 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 filter your search for themes that meet your specific criteria, let’s turn our attention to premium WordPress themes.

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

Theme Marketplaces And Directories

ThemeForest

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

ThemeForest allows many professional WordPress theme designers to showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are currently over 17,500 premium themes to choose from (some starting from as little as $3) …

(click on the above images to see all 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 general blogs and administration sites, etc.
• Corporate – themes suitable for government sites or marketing purposes.
• Creative – themes for design, writers, etc.
• Directory Listings – themes that suit sites about travel, holiday rentals, tourism directories, etc.
• eCommerce – themes for e-commerce, membership sites, etc.
• Education – themes that suit sites related to teaching, etc.
• Entertainment – themes for music and bands blogs, restaurants, 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 shopping, trades or professionals (plumbers, legal practitioners, etc.)
• Technology – themes related to software, landing pages, etc.
• Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and wedding advice blogs
• Miscellaneous – themes suitable for writing or discussing political 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 emails you theme update notifications)

Browse lots of great themes in the ThemeForest marketplace here:

• ThemeForest

Creative Market

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

Creative Market is another leading WP theme directory where you can search through thousands of 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 marketplace, but you can easily go through all of their themes for WordPress and narrow your search using theme categories from their dropdown “Themes” menu …

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

• Creative Market

Mojo Themes

(click on the images above to view more themes at Mojo)

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 WordPress themes, but you can easily find themes for WordPress and narrow your search with theme categories (e.g. Landing Page or Photography themes and theme frameworks, etc.) by choosing the site’s dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …

Visit the site to find great WP themes in the Mojo marketplace here:

• Mojo Themes

Now that we have looked at WordPress theme aggregators, let’s look at commercial and independent theme agencies.

Commercial And Independent Theme Stores

SoloStream

SoloStream provides WordPress users with a great selection of professional quality WP 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 functional WordPress themes and offers a membership option that allows members access to their entire theme collection.

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

StoreFront

StoreFront specializes in 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 see all StoreFront themes)

StudioPress

StudioPress designs WordPress themes based on a framework that allows you to quickly and easily build a professional and search optimized WordPress website, and provides a self-updating design architecture, turn-key designs with beautiful frames for the content and unprecedented control of the framework.

Many web developers prefer using the Genesis framework not only because it’s well-coded and well-supported (the development team at StudioPress keeps this framework consistently updated to reflect best practices for coding and to make sure that themes are 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 “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 very 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 images above to see more themes from StudioPress)

Theme-Checking Tools

Here are a couple of useful WP theme-related tools worth keeping in mind:

What WordPress Theme Is That?

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

This is a great resource if you have come across a WordPress site that you like and would like to know what theme the website or blog uses.

Tip: If you don’t know whether a site runs on WordPress or not, we have published a a great tutorial that helps you tell if a web site uses the WP CMS platform: 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 if a site is built using WordPress software, but it will also list the theme being used on the site and list any WordPress plugins it detects.

• To use the online tool visit the website here: What WordPress Theme Is That
• To learn how to use this tool go here: Is Your Web Site Built With WordPress?

Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC)

A word of warning: When choosing FREE themes for your WordPress site, we highly recommend sticking with the WP themes listed in the official WordPress theme directory.

A method that is commonly used by a number of hackers and cyber criminals is to put up websites offering “Free” WordPress themes all over the web and then distribute themes and plugins that contain malicious code. In fact, some of these sites even come up on Google’s search results for phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free themes for WordPress”” etc. It’s safer, therefore, to only download free WordPress themes from the official WordPress directory, or use well-known and trusted sites.

If you are in doubt about whether a WordPress theme installed on your site 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 installed theme on your site for signs of suspicious code and then presents you with a report with the results …

(TAC Report Page – Source: Plugin, WordPress.org)

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

***

***