Where To Find The Best WordPress Themes

In another post, we provide a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.

If you haven’t yet discovered themes and what makes WP themes so special, then make sure to check out our post here: Understanding WP Themes – A Non-Technical User’s Guide

In this article, you will learn where to search for free and paid themes for your site. 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 how to avoid experiencing problems like lack of product support and poor theme coding.

As explained in another article, a theme is a special type of web template used on WordPress-powered blogs and designed specifically with the WP platform in mind.

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

Where To Find Responsive Themes For WordPress: Let’s Simplify Things!

Let’s say you were to go to Google and search for a key phrase like this:

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

You are probably going to get an overwhelming amount of junk to sort through in your search results.

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 should know that WordPress offers users both a hosted and a self-hosted version. We’ll cover these differences in a later article. For now, please note that we will only be covering the topic of finding 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 your web design.

Free vs Paid Themes

Next, it’s useful to know that there are both Free and Paid WordPress themes being made available. Free themes for WordPress are normally distributed as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they are licensed for use as Premium (i.e. paid) themes.

WordPress Theme Marketplaces vs WordPress Theme Shops

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

Theme marketplaces and theme directories are large theme aggregators. WordPress theme developers (both commercial and independent) list their themes (both free and paid) in the marketplace or directory and buyers 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 WP plugins and templates for other web applications (e.g. Joomla, Drupal, etc.)

Commercial and independent WP theme agencies can develop both free and paid WP themes, and can vary in size, from an individual designer or a small team of theme designer, to large theme development companies.

As you will see, 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 WP theme directories .

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

Finding WordPress Themes For Your Website Or Blog

WordPress.org

(WordPress.org – Free WP Theme 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 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 theme directory is not only a trustworthy and reputable place to download themes for your site, but it also relies on 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 Repository, go here:

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

Find Free WordPress Themes Inside Your Own WP Dashboard

Useful Tip: You can easily browse through every WordPress 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 WordPress dashboard with only a couple of mouse clicks.

Use The WP Theme Feature Filters

WordPress has a built-in 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 themes with specific features. For example, you could search for themes with a orange color design, with a three-column layout and a full-width template, or themes that support custom menus, etc.

Note: in another article where we discuss the importance of using “responsive” themes, we explained how these allow your site to be viewed correctly across all devices (e.g. computers, tablets and smartphones) …

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

… and find only WordPress themes that have been built using “responsive” design standards …

Pros & Cons Of Using Free WordPress Themes

The obvious “pro” to using free themes is that it costs you nothing to download and use the theme on your site. An added plus, is that many free themes are professionally designed and provide 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” 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 developer to provide dedicated support, especially if they are not getting paid. Most freely distributed themes ask users for donations to help cover their support costs.

When downloading free themes, therefore, check to see when the theme was last updated. If it’s been more than a year since any changes were last 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 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 any money on paid themes or even on custom theme design. Who knows, the free theme you’ve downloaded could be exactly what works for your site and your business.

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

Premium 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 ongoing 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 most popular theme marketplaces online.

ThemeForest allows many professional WordPress theme creators to showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are currently over 15,000 premium WordPress themes listed (some starting from as little as $3) …

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

If you visit the ThemeForest theme marketplace, you will be able to browse for specific WP themes in a range of categories, such as:

• Blog/Magazine – themes for general blogs and green living blogs, etc.
• Corporate – themes suitable for medical sites and marketing purposes.
• Creative – themes for video galleries, writing professionals, etc.
• Directory Listings – themes that suit sites about directory listings, buy & sell, community resources, etc.
• eCommerce – themes for e-commerce, membership sites, etc.
• Education – themes that suit sites related to training, etc.
• Entertainment – themes for photo gallery blogs, restaurants, 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. rentals, etc.)
• Retail – themes for retail stores, trades or professionals (electricians, dental practitioners, etc.)
• Technology – themes related to software, landing pages, etc.
• Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and dating advice 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 discover quality premium themes in the ThemeForest site:

• 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 marketplace, but you can easily find themes for WordPress and search through their theme categories from their dropdown “Themes” menu …

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

• Creative Market

Mojo Themes

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

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 WordPress 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 WordPress themes in the Mojo themes directory here:

• Mojo Themes

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

Commercial And Independent WP Theme Development Firms

SoloStream

SoloStream provides WordPress users with a great selection of professional quality premium WordPress themes and the option of accessing all themes through a WordPress theme membership.

(click on images above to see more SoloStream themes)

Woo Themes

Woo Themes creates functional themes and offer a membership option that allows members access to all themes in their growing WP theme collection.

(click on the images above to browse all themes from WooThemes)

StoreFront

StoreFront Themes creates stunning e-commerce themes for WordPress. Their themes also integrate well with some of the most powerful e-commerce platforms and plugins available.

(click on the above images to view all themes from StoreFront)

StudioPress

StudioPress develops WordPress themes based on a framework that lets you quickly and easily build a professional and search optimized WordPress website, and provides a self-updating design architecture, turn-key site designs with beautiful frames for your 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 consistently up-to-date to reflect best coding practices and to make sure that themes remain always compatible with the latest WordPress version, but because you can update your themes without losing any customizations you may 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 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 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 browse all themes from StudioPress)

WP Theme-Checking Tools

To round things up, here are a few more useful WordPress theme-related tools worth keeping in mind:

What WordPress Theme Is That

What WordPress Theme Is That is a free WP theme-checking tool that allows you to easily detect what WordPress theme a website or blog uses.

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

Tip: If you can’t tell whether a site was built using WordPress or not, we have posted a a great tutorial that shows you how to tell if a website is WP-driven: Is My Blog 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 a site has been built using WordPress software, but it will also list the WP theme being used on the site and list any plugins detected.

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

Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) – Plugin

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

A tactic that is commonly used by a number of hacking groups and syndicates that engage in cyber criminal activities is to put up websites and directories offering “Free” WordPress themes all over the web and distribute themes with malicious code embedded in their files. In fact, some of these sites even come up on search engine results for search phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free WordPress themes”” etc. It’s best, therefore, to stick with the official WordPress repository, or use well-known and trusted theme vendors.

If you are in doubt about whether a WordPress theme installed on your blog could contain 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 TAC plugin scans the source files of every them you have installed on your site for signs of malicious code and then outputs a report as shown in the screenshot below …

(TAC Report Page – Screenshot: Plugin)

We hope that you have found this information useful.

***

***