In another post, we provide a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.
If you would like to know more about themes and what makes themes unique, then go here to read the article: An Overview of WP Themes
In this article, we show you where to browse hundreds of 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 make sure that you get the right themes for your needs and avoid experiencing problems like lack of customer support and poorly-coded themes.
As explained in our previously-mentioned post, a WordPress theme is a special kind of web template that is used on WordPress-powered blogs and designed to work specifically for the WordPress platform.
Many individual website designers and web development firms create themes for WordPress. Consequently, WordPress users have access to thousands of exciting themes designed to cover many purposes and needs.
Finding Responsive Themes For WordPress: Let’s Keep Things Simple!
If you were to launch Google and type the following:
- best free WP themes
- best free WordPress themes
- best free WordPress themes for artists (or whatever your business, area of interest or blog is about)
Chances are that you are going to get an overwhelming amount of junk 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 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 later post. For now, we’ll only cover 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 blog.
Free vs Paid Themes
Next, it’s useful to know that typically, you’ll find both Free and Paid WordPress themes being made available. Free WP themes are generally distributed as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they can be licensed for use as Premium (i.e. paid) themes.
WP Theme Directories & Theme Design Companies
There are two kinds of places where WordPress themes can be found. The first type of place is in WordPress theme marketplaces and WordPress theme directories. The second type of place are the commercial and independent theme development firms.
Theme marketplaces and theme directories are large aggregators of themes. 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 larger 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 design companies can also create both free and commercial WP themes, and can vary in size, from an individual designer or a small team of designer, to large theme development companies.
Most commercial or independent theme companies sell their 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 WordPress themes for your website.
Finding Great Themes For Your WP Website
WordPress.org
(WordPress.org – Themes Directory)
The official WordPress theme directory is the biggest and best place to search for free WP themes. In fact, it’s probably the only free 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 place your computer, digital presence … even your entire business at risk.
The WordPress.org 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 comprised of dedicated and hard working volunteers to review and ensure that each theme listed in the directory meets high quality and security standards.
To browse thousands of great-looking FREE WordPress themes from the official WordPress Themes Directory, go here:
http://www.wordpress.org/extend/themes
Search For Free Themes Inside Your Own WP 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 within your WordPress dashboard with a few mouse clicks.
Use 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 what you are looking for. For example, you could search for themes with a light color design, with a 4-column layout and a full-width template, or themes that support custom menus, etc.
Note: in an earlier post where we present an overview of WordPress themes and discuss the importance of using “responsive” WP themes, we explained how these ensure that your theme will display without problems across all devices (e.g. your visitors’ computers, tablets and smartphones) …
It’s a good idea to use responsive themes, and the WordPress theme filtering option lets you do just that …
… and find only themes that use “responsive” design standards …
Pros & Cons Of Using Free Themes
The obvious “pro” to using free themes is that there is no cost 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 options, 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 theme developer to provide personal support, especially if they are not getting paid. Most freely distributed themes will ask you for a donation 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 last made, then think carefully about using it, as the theme may have been abandoned by its developer.
If you’re just getting started and your website or blog is still relatively 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 money on paid themes or even on custom web design. Who knows, the free theme you’ve downloaded may just be the thing that works for your site and for your business.
Now that we’ve seen how to find free WP themes in the WordPress.org theme directory and ways to filter your search for themes that meet your specific criteria, it’s time to turn our attention to paid WordPress themes.
Paid 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 responsive support, then search through the WordPress theme galleries of the “Premium” theme design agencies listed below:
WP Theme Marketplaces And Directories
ThemeForest
ThemeForest is one of the biggest and well known WordPress theme directories online.
ThemeForest lets many professional WP theme developers showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are currently over 15,000 premium WordPress themes listed (you can find great themes from as little as $3) …
(click on the above images to browse all ThemeForest themes)
If you visit the ThemeForest theme marketplace, you will be able to browse for specific WordPress themes in a range of categories, such as:
- Blog/Magazine – themes for general blogs and green living blogs, etc.
- Corporate – themes suitable for legal sites and marketing purposes.
- Creative – themes suitable for portfolios, writing professionals, etc.
- Directory Listings – themes that suit sites about directory listings, classifieds, , etc.
- eCommerce – themes for selling products online, event bookings and registrations, etc.
- Education – themes that suit sites related to training, etc.
- Entertainment – themes for celebrity blogs, dining out, etc.
- Mobile – e.g. mobile-switching themes.
- NonProfit – themes for nonprofit organizations, charities, etc.
- Real Estate – themes for real estate and real estate listings (e.g. home sales, etc.)
- Retail – themes for health products, trades or professionals (repairers, dental practitioners, etc.)
- Technology – themes related to apps, newsletters, 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)
Go here to discover great WordPress themes in the ThemeForest marketplace:
Creative Market
(click on the above images to view more Creative Market themes)
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 WP themes in its directory, but you can easily find themes for WordPress and search through their theme categories using their dropdown “Themes” menu …
Browse through hundreds of great themes crafted by independent WP theme designers in the Creative Market marketplace here:
Mojo Themes
(click on the images above to browse more WP themes at Mojo)
Mojo is a directory for premium 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 WordPress themes and search through their theme categories (e.g. Magazine or eCommerce themes and theme frameworks, etc.) using the dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …
Visit the site to find great premium themes in the Mojo themes marketplace here:
Now that we have looked at WordPress theme directories, let’s turn our attention to commercial WordPress theme vendors.
Commercial Theme Design Companies
SoloStream
SoloStream provides WordPress users with a selection of high quality WP themes and the option of accessing all themes through a WordPress theme membership.
(click on above images to browse more themes from SoloStream)
Woo Themes
Woo Themes creates stunning premium themes for WordPress and offers a membership option that lets you access all themes in their WordPress theme portfolio.
(click on the above images to view more WooThemes themes)
StoreFront
StoreFront Themes specializes in creating WordPress 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 browse all themes from StoreFront)
StudioPress
StudioPress provides WordPress themes based on a framework that allows you to quickly and easily build a professional and search optimized WordPress site, and provides a self-updating design architecture, turn-key designs with beautiful frames for the content and unprecedented control of the framework.
Many website developers prefer using this framework not only because it’s well-coded and well-supported (the development team at StudioPress keeps the framework regularly updated to reflect best practices for coding and to ensure that it always remains compatible with the latest version of WordPress, but because you can update your themes without losing any customizations you have made to your theme.
This is because themes built with 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 look and feel.
If this sounds 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 view all themes from StudioPress)
Theme-Checking Tools
Let’s finish this article with some useful WordPress theme-related tools worth knowing about:
What WP Theme Is That – WP Theme Search Tool
What WordPress Theme Is That? is a free WordPress theme-checking tool that allows you to easily detect what WP theme a website uses (including parent and child themes).
This is a great resource if you have come across a WordPress site that you like and would like to know what theme is being used on the site.
Tip: If you can’t tell whether a site uses WordPress or not, we have published a a great tutorial that helps you tell if a website uses the WordPress CMS platform: How To Check If A 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 was built on WordPress software, but it will also list the theme being used and list any WordPress plugins it detects.
- To use the online tool visit the website here: What WordPress Theme Is That?
- To learn more about using this tool go here: How Can I Check If A Site Was Built With WordPress?
Theme Authenticity Checker - Plugin
We said this before and it’s worth repeating it again: If you decide to use FREE themes for your WordPress site, we highly recommend sticking with the WordPress themes listed in the official WordPress theme repository.
A method that is commonly used by many hackers and cyber criminals is to put up websites offering “Free” themes for WordPress 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.org directory, or use well-known and reputable sites.
If you have any concerns about whether a WordPress theme installed on your blog 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 WordPress theme files. This plugin searches the source files of every installed theme on your site for signs of malicious code and presents you with a report …
(TAC Report Page – Screenshot: Plugin)
We hope that you have found the information on how to find the best WordPress free and commercial responsive themes useful.
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