In an earlier article, we have written a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.
If you haven’t yet discovered themes and what makes WordPress themes so special, then go here to read our article: About WP Themes – A Guide For Business Owners
In this article, we show you where you can look for free and paid themes for your WP 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 poor coding.
As explained in another post, a theme is a special kind of web design template used on WordPress-driven blogs and designed to work specifically with WordPress in mind.
Many individual web designers and website development firms create themes for WordPress. Consequently, members of the WordPress community enjoy access to thousands of professional themes designed to cover a wide range of purposes.
Finding Great Themes: Let’s Simplify Things!
If you were to fire up Google and type a key phrase like the following:
- best free WP themes
- best paid themes for WordPress
- best free WordPress themes for business (or whatever your business, search topic or website is about)
You are probably 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 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, we’ll only cover the topic of finding themes for the self-hosted version of WordPress (WordPress.org) in this post, which gives you more freedom, more options and more control over the design areas of your site.
Free vs Paid WordPress Themes
Next, it’s important to know that you will easily find many Free and Paid WP 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 will be sold as Premium (i.e. paid) themes.
WordPress Theme Directories vs WordPress Theme Shops
There are 2 kinds of places where WP themes can be found. The first place is in WordPress theme marketplaces and WP theme directories. The second place are the commercial and independent theme development firms.
Theme marketplaces and theme directories are big aggregators of themes. WP 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 marketplace.
Some of the larger directories 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 WordPress theme stores typically will create both free and paid WordPress themes, and can vary in size, from an individual theme developer or a small team of developer, to large web and theme design and development companies.
As you will see, many commercial or independent theme design houses 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 directories .
Let’s now show you where to search for the best themes for your blog.
Choosing Great Themes For Your Website Or Blog
WordPress.org
(WordPress.org – Themes Directory)
The official WordPress theme directory is the biggest 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 many free software users have discovered– downloading free software, add-ons, apps, templates or themes from untrustworthy places can put 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 site, but it also relies on a review team comprised of dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers to review and ensure that each theme uploaded to the directory meets their 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
Search For Free Themes Without Leaving Your Own WP Dashboard
Useful Tip: You can easily browse through every theme in the WordPress.org directory and not only find what you are looking for, but also easily install and start using it directly from within your WordPress admin panel with a few clicks.
Use Theme Filters
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 predominantly dark 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 choosing “responsive” themes, we explained how these ensure that your theme will work across all devices (e.g. the laptops, tablets and smartphones used by visitors to view your website) …
You should use responsive themes, and the WordPress theme filtering function lets you search across its entire database of free themes …
… and find only themes that use “responsive” design standards …
Pros & Cons Of Using Free Themes
The obvious “pro” to using free themes is that it’s free to download and use the theme. An added plus, is that many free themes are professionally designed and come with 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” 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 theme developer to provide immediate support, especially if they are not getting paid. Many free themes ask 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 well over one year since any updates were last made, then think carefully about downloading it, as the theme may have been abandoned by its developer.
If you’re just getting started and your site 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 theme design. Who knows, the theme you downloaded for free may just be the thing that works for you and for your business.
Now that we’ve seen how to find free themes in the WordPress.org theme directory and ways to narrow down your search for themes that meet your specific criteria, let’s turn our attention to paid 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 great 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 well known theme marketplaces online.
ThemeForest lets many professional WordPress theme designers 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 more 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 parenting blogs, etc.
- Corporate – themes suitable for legal sites and marketing purposes.
- Creative – themes for design, kindle book authors, etc.
- Directory Listings – themes that suit sites related to directory listings, buy & sell, tourism directories, etc.
- eCommerce – themes for selling products online, membership sites, etc.
- Education – themes that suit sites related to training, etc.
- Entertainment – themes for entertainment blogs, nightlife, 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 health products, trades or professionals (repairers, dentists, 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, 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)
Go here to find great themes in the ThemeForest site:
Creative Market
(click on the images above to browse more Creative Market themes)
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 WP themes in its directory, but you can easily find themes for WordPress and narrow your search using theme categories from their dropdown “Themes” menu …
Browse through hundreds of great premium themes crafted by independent WordPress theme developers in the Creative Market theme directory here:
Mojo Themes
(click on the above images to browse all WordPress themes at Mojo.com)
Mojo is a directory for premium 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 go through all of their themes for WordPress and search through their theme categories by selecting the dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …
Visit the site to find great premium WP themes in the Mojo theme marketplace here:
Now that we have looked at WP theme marketplaces, let’s look at commercial WP theme design houses.
Commercial And Independent WordPress Theme Design Houses
SoloStream
SoloStream provides WordPress users with a selection of high quality premium themes and the option of accessing all themes through a WordPress theme membership.
(click on images above to view more SoloStream themes)
Woo Themes
Woo Themes designs eye-catching themes that are very popular and highly sought after by website users and offers a membership option that lets you access their entire theme collection.
(click on the images above to view more themes from WooThemes)
StoreFront
StoreFront creates beautiful 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 images above to browse all StoreFront themes)
StudioPress
StudioPress builds WordPress themes based on a framework (called the “Genesis” framework) that lets users quickly and easily build a professional and search optimized WordPress site, and provides a self-updating design architecture, turn-key site designs with beautiful frames for your content and unprecedented control of the framework.
Many website developers prefer using the Genesis framework not only because it’s well-coded and well-supported (the development team at StudioPress keeps this framework frequently updated to reflect best practices for coding and to ensure 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 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 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 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 images above to browse more StudioPress themes)
Theme-Checking Tools
To round things up, here are some useful WordPress theme-related tools worth keeping in mind:
What WordPress Theme Is That? – WordPress Theme And Plugin Search Tool
What WordPress Theme Is That is a free WordPress theme-checking tool that lets you easily detect what WP theme and plugins a website is using.
This is a great resource if you have come across a WordPress site that you like and would like to know what WordPress theme the site uses.
Tip: If you can’t tell if a site runs on WordPress or not, go here for a great tutorial that helps you tell whether or not a web site is powered by WordPress: The Easy Way To Tell If Your Blog 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 a site was built using WordPress software, but it will also list the WP theme being used on the site and list any WordPress plugins it detects.
- To use the tool go here: What WordPress Theme Is That?
- To learn how to use this tool go here: Tell-Tale Signs It’s A WordPress Blog And WordPress-Checking Tools
Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) – Plugin
A word of warning: When choosing FREE themes for your WordPress site, we highly recommend sticking with the reviewed and approved WordPress themes listed in the official WordPress theme repository.
A well-known tactic used by a number of hacking groups and cyber criminals is to put up sites offering “Free” WP themes all over the web and distribute modified themes and plugins that contain malicious code. In fact, some of these sites even come up on Google’s search results for key phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free WordPress themes”” etc. It’s best, therefore, to stick with the official WordPress.org repository, or use established and trusted sites.
If you are concerned about whether a WordPress theme that you have installed on your blog could be infected with potentially malicious or unwanted code, you can use a free WordPress plugin like Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) to perform a scan of your WP theme files. This plugin searches the source files of every them you have installed on your site for signs of injected code and then presents you with a report …
(Theme Authenticity Checker Report Page – Source: Plugin)
We hope that you have found the information on how to find great free and premium responsive themes for WordPress useful.
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