Where To Find The Best WordPress Themes

In an earlier 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 Introduction to WordPress Themes

In this blog post, you will learn where to find many great free and paid themes for your WordPress site. You will also learn about the different types of WP 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 support and poorly-coded themes.

As explained in another article, a theme is a unique type of web template that is used on WordPress-driven sites and designed specifically for WordPress.

Many individual web designers and web design houses create themes for WordPress. Consequently, WordPress users have access to thousands of uniquely-designed themes designed for many purposes.

Where To Find Great Themes: How To Avoid Information Overload

If you were to browse over to Google and type the following:

• best responsive WP themes
• WordPress themes free
• best paid WordPress themes for authors (or whatever your business, search topic or blog is about)

Chances are that you are going to get an overwhelming amount of information to sort through in the 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 simple.

WordPress.com vs WordPress.org Themes

Before we get started, you should know that WordPress offers users both a hosted and a self-hosted version. We’ll cover these differences in a later article. To keep things simple, 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, which gives you more freedom, more options and more control over the design areas of your blog.

Free vs Paid WordPress Themes

Next, it’s important to know that you will easily find many Free and Paid WordPress themes being made available. Free themes for WordPress are generally distributed as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they will be listed as Premium (paid) themes.

Theme Marketplaces & Theme Stores

There are mostly two types of places where you can find WordPress themes. The first place is in WP theme marketplaces and WordPress theme directories. The second are the commercial and independent WordPress theme shops.

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 shop for these just like they would if they were shopping for apps on an app store or software directory.

Some of the bigger directories 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 vendors typically develop both free and commercial themes, and can vary in size, from an individual designer or a small team of developer, to large web and theme design 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 WordPress theme directories .

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

Choosing A Responsive WordPress Theme For Your Website Or Blog

WordPress.org

(WordPress.org – Themes Directory)

The official WordPress.org theme directory is the largest and best place to download free WordPress themes. In fact, it’s probably the only free WP 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 contain malicious code and put your computer, digital presence … even your entire business at risk.

The WP theme directory is not only a trustworthy and reputable place to download themes for your website, but it also relies on a review team comprised of dedicated and hard working volunteers to review and ensure that each theme in the directory complies with specific quality and security standards.

To browse thousands of excellent FREE WordPress themes from the official WordPress Themes Directory, go here:

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

Look For Free Themes Inside Your Own WP 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 inside your WordPress dashboard with a few clicks.

Use The WordPress Theme Filters

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 dark colour design, with a 4-column layout and a full-width template, or themes that support custom menus, etc.

Note: in another post where we discuss the importance of choosing “responsive” themes, we explained how these ensure that your theme will work on all devices (e.g. the PCs, smartphones and tablets used by visitors to browse your site information) …

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

… and find only WordPress themes that are “responsive” …

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. An added plus, is that many free themes are professionally designed and offer a number of 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 theme developer to provide immediate support, especially if they are not getting paid. Most 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 well over a year since any updates were last made, then we advise you to think carefully about using it, as WordPress is frequently updated and these changes can create conflicts or errors with older code.

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 money on paid themes. Who knows, the free theme you’ve downloaded could be exactly what works for your site and for your business.

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 your specific requirements, let’s turn our attention to paid WordPress themes.

Premium WordPress 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:

WP Theme Marketplaces And Directories

ThemeForest

ThemeForest is one of the largest and well known theme directories online.

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

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

If you visit the ThemeForest theme directory, you will be able to browse for specific themes in various categories, such as:

• Blog/Magazine – themes for bloggers and activism blogs, etc.
• Corporate – themes suitable for government sites and marketing purposes.
• Creative – themes for creative work, freelancers, etc.
• Directory Listings – themes ideal for sites about employment opportunities, buy & sell, tourism directories, etc.
• eCommerce – themes for selling products online, event bookings and registrations, etc.
• Education – themes that suit sites related to training, etc.
• Entertainment – themes for photo gallery blogs, restaurants, 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. rentals, etc.)
• Retail – themes for shopping, trades or professionals (plumbers, legal practitioners, etc.)
• Technology – themes related to technology, 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 premium themes in the ThemeForest site:

• ThemeForest

Creative Market

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

Creative Market is another leading WordPress theme directory where you can browse thousands of 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 from the site’s dropdown “Themes” menu …

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

• Creative Market

Mojo Themes

(click on the above images to see all WordPress themes at Mojo)

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 find WordPress themes and narrow your search with theme categories (e.g. Landing Page or eCommerce themes and theme frameworks, etc.) using the site’s dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …

Visit the site to find great themes in the Mojo themes marketplace here:

• Mojo

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

Commercial And Independent WP Theme Developers

SoloStream

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

(click on images above to browse all SoloStream themes)

Woo Themes

Woo Themes designs great themes that are very popular and highly sought after by website users and also offer a membership option that lets you access their entire theme portfolio.

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

StoreFront

StoreFront specializes in 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 view more StoreFront themes)

StudioPress

StudioPress provides WordPress themes based on a framework that enables users 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 this framework frequently updated to reflect best practices for coding and to make sure that it always remains compatible with the latest version of WordPress, but because you can update your themes 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 design.

If this 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 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 see all StudioPress themes)

WP Theme-Checking Tools

Let’s finish this post with a couple of useful WP theme-related tools worth keeping in mind:

What WP Theme Is That WP Theme Checker

What WordPress Theme Is That? is a free web tool that lets you easily detect what WordPress theme and plugins a site 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 website uses.

Tip: If you can’t tell if a site uses WordPress or not, go here for a great tutorial that shows you how to tell whether or not a web site uses the WordPress CMS platform: Is It A WordPress Website?

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 the WordPress CMS platform, but it will also list the WordPress theme being used and list any WP plugins it detects.

• To use the online tool go here: What WordPress Theme Is That?
• To learn how to use this tool go here: How Can I Tell If My Web Site Was Built With WordPress?

Theme Authenticity Checker - Plugin

We suggested this before and it’s worth repeating it again: When choosing FREE themes for your WordPress site, we highly recommend sticking with the reviewed and approved WP themes listed in the official WordPress theme repository.

A well-known tactic used by many hackers and syndicates that engage in cyber-crime is to put up websites and directories offering “Free” WordPress themes all over the web and then distribute themes that contain malicious code. In fact, some of these sites even come up on Google for search phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free WordPress themes”” etc. It’s safer, therefore, to only download free themes from the official WordPress repository, or use established and reputable theme download sites.

If you have any doubts about whether a WordPress theme installed on your site could be infected with malware or unwanted code, you can use a free WordPress plugin like Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) to run a scan of your theme files. The plugin scans the source files of every them you have installed on your site for signs of suspicious code and outputs a report …

(TAC Report Page – Screenshot: Plugin)

We hope that you have found this information useful.

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