Where To Find The Best WordPress Themes

In an earlier article, we have written a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.

If you would like to learn more about the benefits of using themes and what makes WP themes so special, then make sure to check out the article here: An Introduction to WP Themes

In this blog post, we will show you where you can search 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 ensure that you get the right themes for your needs and avoid having to deal with problems like lack of product support and poorly-coded themes.

As explained in another article, a WordPress theme is a special kind of web design template that is used on WordPress-powered websites and blogs and designed to work specifically with the WordPress CMS platform in mind.

Many website designers and website design houses create themes for WordPress. Consequently, WordPress users can access thousands of great themes designed for many website uses.

Finding Great Great Themes For WordPress: Too Much Information … Where To Begin?

If you were to fire up Google and search for the following:

• best WP themes
• WordPress themes free
• best free WordPress themes for churches (enter whatever your business, area of interest or website is about)

Chances are that you are going to get an overwhelming amount of junk to sort through in the 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 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 a different article. In this post, let’s just focus on 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 WordPress Themes

Next, it’s important to know that you will find thousands of Free and Paid WP themes made available. Free themes are generally distributed as Free 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 & WordPress Theme Shops

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

Theme marketplaces and WordPress theme directories are large aggregators of themes. WP 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 WP plugins and templates for other web applications (e.g. Joomla, Drupal, etc.)

Commercial and independent theme stores typically develop both free and paid WP themes, and can vary in size, from an individual developer or a small team of developer, to large web and theme design companies.

As you will see, most commercial or independent theme design houses 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 WordPress theme directories .

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

Choosing Themes For Your Website Or Blog

WordPress.org

(WordPress.org – WordPress Themes Directory)

The official WordPress.org theme directory is the largest and best place to download free WP themes. In fact, it’s probably the only free theme directory you should use when looking for free WP themes. The reason why, 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.org directory is not only a trustworthy and reputable place to download themes for your website or blog, but it also relies on a review team to review and make sure that each theme listed in the directory meets certain quality and security standards.

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 WordPress Dashboard

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

Use WordPress Theme Feature Filter

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 themes with specific features. For example, you could search for themes with a gray 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 present an overview of WordPress themes and discuss the importance of choosing “responsive” themes, we explained how these allow your site to be viewed correctly on all devices (e.g. the computers, tablets and smartphones used by visitors to view your web content) …

You should use responsive themes, and the WordPress theme filtering option lets you do just that …

… and find only WP themes that use “responsive” design standards …

Pros & Cons Of Using Free WP 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 options, giving you great flexibility and choice in how you configure all of its various layout elements.

The ”cons” to using free WP 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 immediate support, especially if they are not getting paid. Many freely distributed themes will ask you for a donation 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 1 year since any change was last made, then think carefully about downloading it, as WordPress is frequently updated and this can result in conflicts or errors with older code.

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 money on premium themes or even on custom web design. Who knows, the theme you downloaded for free could be exactly what works for you and for your business.

Now that we’ve seen how to find free WordPress 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 finding premium WordPress themes.

Premium 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, then 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 best-known WordPress theme directories online.

ThemeForest lets many professional WP theme developers showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are currently over 17,000 premium themes listed (some starting from as little as $3) …

(click on the images above to view 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 parenting blogs, etc.
• Corporate – themes suitable for legal sites or advertising purposes.
• Creative – themes suitable for design, galleries, etc.
• Directory Listings – themes that suit sites about travel, holiday rentals, business directories, etc.
• eCommerce – themes for e-commerce, event bookings and registrations, etc.
• Education – themes that suit sites related to teaching, etc.
• Entertainment – themes for entertainment blogs, nightlife, 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. home sales, etc.)
• Retail – themes for shops, trades or professionals (repairers, legal firms, etc.)
• Technology – themes related to apps, affiliate marketing, seo, product reviews, direct sales, etc.
• Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and dating 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)

Browse lots of quality premium themes in the ThemeForest marketplace here:

• ThemeForest

Creative Market

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

Creative Market is another leading WP 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 directory, but you can easily find themes for WordPress and narrow your search using theme categories using their dropdown “Themes” menu …

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

• Creative Market

Mojo Themes

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

Mojo is a marketplace 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 WordPress themes, but you can easily go through all of their themes for WordPress and search through their theme categories (e.g. Landing Page or Photography themes and theme frameworks, etc.) from the dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …

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

• Mojo

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

Commercial And Independent Theme Stores

SoloStream

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

(click on above images to browse more SoloStream themes)

Woo Themes

Woo Themes creates great themes that are very popular and highly sought after by web users and also offers a membership option that lets you access all themes in their growing WordPress theme portfolio.

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

StoreFront

StoreFront creates stunning 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 view more StoreFront themes)

StudioPress

StudioPress builds WordPress themes based on a framework (called the “Genesis” 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 up-to-date to reflect best practices for coding and to make sure that themes are always compatible with the latest version of WordPress, but because you can update themes built using the Genesis framework without losing any customizations you may 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 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 allows 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 all themes from StudioPress)

Theme-Checking Tools

Let’s finish this post with a couple of useful WP theme-related tools worth knowing about:

What WordPress Theme Is That WP Theme Checker

What WordPress Theme Is That is a free online tool that allows you to easily detect what WP 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 WordPress theme is being used on the website.

Tip: If you can’t tell whether a site uses WordPress or not, we have posted a a great tutorial that shows you how to tell if a website uses the WP CMS platform: Is Your Site Powered By 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 whether or not the site is powered by WordPress software, but it will also list the theme being used on the site and list any WP plugins detected.

• To use this tool go here: What WordPress Theme Is That.com
• To learn how to use this tool go here: Is My Blog WordPress?

Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) – WP Plugin

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

A commonly-used tactic employed by many hacking groups and cyber criminals is to put up websites and directories offering “Free” themes for WordPress all over the web and then distribute themes that contain malicious code. In fact, some of these sites even display on Google’s search results for search phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free themes for WordPress”” etc. It’s safer, therefore, to only download free WP themes from the official WordPress.org directory, or use established and trusted theme vendors.

If you have any concerns about whether a WordPress theme that you have installed on your site could be infected with malware 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 injected code and then outputs a report with the results …

(TAC Report Page – Source: Plugin)

We hope that you have found this information useful.

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