In a separate post, we have written a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.
If you haven’t yet discovered WP themes and what makes WP themes so special, then go here to read our post: An Overview of WordPress Themes
In this article, you will learn where to browse hundreds of free and paid themes for your website or blog. 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 dealing with problems like lack of support and poorly-coded themes.
As explained in our previous post, a WordPress theme is a special kind of web template that is used on WordPress-powered sites and designed to work specifically in WordPress.
Many individual web designers and website design houses create themes for WordPress. Consequently, WordPress users have access to thousands of exciting themes covering a wide-range of applications.
Finding WP Themes: Your Time-Saving Guide
If you were to browse over to Google and type a key phrase like the following:
- best responsive themes for WordPress
- best premium WordPress themes
- best responsive WordPress themes for blogs (or whatever your business, area of interest or website is about)
Chances are that you are going to get an overwhelming amount of disorganized information to sort through in your search listings.
So, to help you save time and make things easier, we’ll just cut through the clutter and make the process of finding great WordPress themes really simple.
WordPress.com vs WordPress.org Themes
Before we get started, you need to know that WordPress offers both a hosted and a self-hosted version. We’ll cover these differences in a different post. In this post, let’s just focus on finding 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 your web design.
Free vs Paid Themes
Next, it’s important to know that you can find thousands of Free and Paid WordPress themes 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 listed as Premium (paid) themes.
WP Theme Directories vs Theme Design Companies
There are 2 kinds of places where WP themes can be found. The first type of place is in theme marketplaces and WordPress theme directories. The second place are the commercial and independent WP theme vendors.
WP theme marketplaces and theme directories are big theme stores. WordPress theme developers (both commercial and independent) list their themes (both free and paid) in the marketplace or directory and customers shop 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 agencies can also create both free and paid WordPress themes, and can vary in size, from an individual theme designer or a small team of developer, to large theme design and development companies.
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 WordPress theme directories .
Let’s now show you where to search for the best themes for your website or blog.
Where To Find A Great Theme For Your Website Or Blog
WordPress.org
(WordPress.org – Free Theme Directory)
The official WordPress.org theme directory is the biggest and best place to search for free WordPress themes. In fact, it’s probably the only free WordPress theme directory you should use when looking for free WordPress themes. The reason for this, is because –as many free software users have learned– 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 website or blog, but it also uses a theme review team comprised of dedicated and code-savvy volunteers to review and make sure that each theme in the directory complies with certain quality and security standards.
To browse thousands of excellent FREE WordPress themes from the official Themes Directory, 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 WP 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 inside your WordPress admin panel with only a couple of mouse clicks.
Use The Theme Feature Filter
WordPress provides a filtering function inside the dashboard 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 pink 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 present an overview of WordPress themes and discuss the importance of using “responsive” themes, we explained how responsive themes ensure that your theme will display 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 search across its entire database of free themes …
… and display only WP themes that are “responsive” …
Pros & Cons Of Using Free Themes
The obvious “pro” to using free WordPress themes is that it costs nothing to download and use the theme on your site. Additionally, many free themes are professionally designed and come with a number of built-in 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 developer to provide immediate support, especially if they are not getting paid. Most free 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 twice about downloading it, as the theme may have been abandoned by its developer.
If you’re just getting started and your website is still quite 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 any money on paid themes. Who knows, the theme you downloaded for free could be exactly what works for you and for converting your site visitors into customers.
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 finding paid WordPress 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 great support, then search through the WordPress theme galleries of the “Premium” theme design agencies listed below:
Theme Directories
ThemeForest
ThemeForest is one of the largest and best-known theme marketplaces online.
ThemeForest allows many professional WordPress theme developers to showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are well over 15,000 premium themes to choose from (some starting from as little as $3) …
(click on the above images to view all themes on ThemeForest)
If you visit the ThemeForest theme marketplace, you will be able to browse for specific themes in a range of categories, such as:
- Blog/Magazine – themes for personal blogs and news editorials, etc.
- Corporate – themes suitable for corporate sites or advertising purposes.
- Creative – themes for portfolios, writing professionals, etc.
- Directory Listings – themes that suit sites related to travel, classifieds, , etc.
- eCommerce – themes for selling products online, membership sites, etc.
- Education – themes that suit sites related to training, etc.
- Entertainment – themes for fashion blogs, music venues, 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 beauty products, trades or professionals (plumbers, chiropractors, etc.)
- Technology – themes related to hosting, affiliate marketing, seo, product reviews, direct sales, etc.
- Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and romance tips and 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 emails you theme update notifications)
Browse thousands of great premium themes in the ThemeForest theme directory here:
Creative Market
(click on the images above to browse more Creative Market themes)
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 WP themes in its directory, but you can easily find themes for WordPress and narrow your search using theme categories (e.g. Blog or Photography themes, etc.) using the site’s dropdown “Themes” menu …
Browse through hundreds of great premium WP themes crafted by independent WP theme designers in the Creative Market marketplace here:
Mojo Themes
(click on the images above to browse all themes at Mojo.com)
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 find themes for WordPress and search through their theme categories (e.g. Blog or Photography themes and theme frameworks, etc.) by using the site’s dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …
Visit the site to find great WordPress themes in the Mojo directory here:
Now that we have looked at WordPress theme aggregators, let’s turn our attention to commercial theme development firms.
Commercial And Independent Theme Shops
SoloStream
SoloStream provides WordPress users with a great selection of high 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 great premium 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 WP theme portfolio.
(click on the images above to see 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 more StoreFront themes)
StudioPress
StudioPress builds WordPress themes based on a framework that enables users to quickly and easily build a professional and search optimized WordPress website, and provides an auto-updating design architecture, turn-key site designs with beautiful frames for your content and unprecedented control of the framework.
Many web developers like the Genesis framework not only because it’s well-coded and well-supported (the development team at StudioPress keeps the framework regularly updated to reflect best coding practices and to make sure that it always remains compatible with the latest WordPress version, 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 with 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 design.
If this all 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 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 more StudioPress themes)
Theme-Checking Tools
To round things up, here are a couple of useful WordPress theme-related tools worth knowing about:
What WordPress Theme Is That – WordPress Theme And Plugin Checker
What WordPress Theme Is That? is a free WP theme and plugin-checking tool that lets you easily detect what WordPress theme and plugins a site is using (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 WP theme is being used on the website.
Tip: If you can’t tell if a site runs on WordPress or not, we have posted a a great tutorial that helps you tell whether or not a website uses the WP CMS platform: Is My Website Built With WordPress? How To Tell
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 whether or not the site is built on WordPress, but it will also list the theme being used by the site and list any plugins it detects.
- To use this tool visit the website here: What WordPress Theme Is That.com
- To learn how to use this tool go here: Is It A WP Blog?
Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC)
A word of warning: 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 hacking groups and cyber criminals is to put up sites offering “Free” WP themes all over the web and then distribute modified themes that contain malicious code. In fact, some of these sites even come up on Google for phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free themes for WordPress”” etc. It’s best, therefore, to only download free themes from the official WordPress directory, or use well-known and trusted theme vendors.
If you have any concerns about whether a WordPress theme installed on your site could be infected with malicious or unwanted code, use a free WordPress plugin like Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) to scan your theme files. This plugin searches the source files of every installed theme on your site for signs of suspicious code and outputs a report …
(Theme Authenticity Checker Report Page – Source: Plugin)
We hope that you have found this information useful.
***
"Your training is the best in the world! It is simple, yet detailed, direct, understandable, memorable, and complete." Andrea Adams, FinancialJourney.org
***