Please do not use Google or other search engines to find free themes. Anyone on earth can create a theme, and many freebie sites have themes with malicious code!
One of the greatest features of WordPress is the huge variety of themes that you can choose from. You can find themes made specifically for certain features, like e-commerce, classified ads, a magazine, photo gallery, even a social network using Buddy Press. When you are viewing a demo of any theme, be sure to look on the menu and/or in the text to see if the theme has options like different colors. One theme may come in 10 different colors! When you install the theme on your own website, you’d simply look in your administrator menu for the theme options link to choose the color you wish to use.
Here’s my list of where to find WordPress themes. You’re sure to find the perfect theme from one of these providers. Don’t forget to check out my blog, too! I blog about new themes that have come out, sales, tips, tricks and more! Tip: don’t miss any new posts by simply signing up for my newsletter.
Premium WordPress Themes
My three favorites theme providers!
Announcement Theme by Woo Themes
Be sure to look at their themes, and in their Marketplace where third party developers sell themes that they’ve designed around the Genesis framework.
This company has really come a long way in a short period of time. I have used their themes and both their support and their prices are great. Here’s how it works: You choose a theme. The first theme that you purchase, you need to purchase the package that includes their framework called Genesis. In a nutshell, their framework allows you to very easily customize things like the layout (one column on the right or left, two column, etc.) what is going to appear on your menu(s), if you want to enable breadcrumbs and if so – on front page, pages, posts, archives, 404 page.
Now let’s say you decide later on that you want to change your theme. You already own the framework (Genesis). You can simply purchase a new child theme and install it. Your layout stays intact thanks to Genesis. And please, make sure that you only purchase the child theme, not the theme and Genesis. When I wrote this, child themes were only $24.95! Visit their forum as a current customer and you may find a coupon code for a discount on your next purchase.
If you are a developer, you might be interested in their Pro Plus package. This gives you access to all of their current and future themes for a one time payment. Please note: this does not include third party themes displayed in their Marketplace.
WooThemes - extremely popular, professional themes – they are one of the top WordPress theme providers. Not only do they offer tons of great themes, but they also have a “playground” where you can test drive any of their premium themes before you decide to make a purchase. They make it so simple to add your logo, change colors and the background and so much more. Great for beginners and the pros, WooThemes makes it east to add things like tabbed content, bullet lists, columns, social network icons and more. You should also check out their free themes and icons while you’re there!
They offer a few options as far as purchasing themes, including a couple of different memberships with a monthly fee that gives you access to all of their themes with unlimited usage.
Elegant Themes – Loads of very stylish themes, unlimited use, all for one low price. Even the developer’s option is very reasonable.
WordPress Ecommerce themes:
Storefront Themes – for the free WP e-commerce plugin!
Tokookoo - crazy name, great themes for WP e-commerce plugin!
RocketTheme – check out their theme named Mercado. It’s absolutely gorgeous and integrates Ecwid Shopping Cart.
WooCommerce – released September 2011. It’s a free plugin with some premium plugins that you can purchase to extend its features. They’re quickly developing themes for WooCommerce, too!
Themes with Plugins for a specific industry
AppThemes The name says it all. They are Themes for a specific application and include the plugins to perform the app. For example, they have themes for Classified Ads, Job Listings, Business Directory, and even a Coupon Management Theme that functions like RetailMeNot.com.
ThemeForest – a huge collection of themes submitted by a variety of sources. There are some industry specific themes there that have plugins to create awesome websites without having to search for separate plugins.
Themes for Photographers
Photocrati - WordPress theme for photographers. 15 theme styles, 4 homepage styles. With all of these possible configurations, their 1 theme = 60 themes out of the box! Being able to focus on just the one theme that they offer, Photocrati is able to bring their theme to perfection. Features include strong copyright protection, built in e-commerce gallery, iPhone and iPad compatibility and a whole lot more!
Theme builders for creating different page layouts
If you plan on building a whole bunch of websites, you may prefer to purchase a theme builder. These builders will allow you to create your own page layout(s), change colors, and so forth.
Need help choosing theme colors? Try using the free tool called Kuler, created by Adobe.
Headway - here’s a unique theme. Or rather, it’s not just a theme. It’s actually a click to draw, drag and drop editor for creating WordPress themes. I’ve been playing around with their newest version, Headway 3.0. It is just about the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. You can have a different layout for each and every page and post on your entire site if you wanted to (not that I recommend it). Although you don’t need them, you can purchase child themes to go along with Headway. This makes styling your theme quick and painless. You no longer need to stick with a theme’s layout. Just drag and drop things where you want them to go. No coding required! You can use it to create themes for your clients and even build and sell complete websites with Headway. The new owner would need to purchase a license if they wanted to gain access to the support forums. Other than that, the sky’s the limit!
Thesis Theme - Created by DIYthemes, Thesis is a theme for those of us who make search engine optimization a priority. Framework with lots of configuration options. License for use is per domain. You can also choose the developer license. It’s more expensive initially, but then you have the option to pay a lower price per domain use.
iThemes – they 2 different builders (Builder and Flexx) to choose from, along with a whole bunch of skins for the theme(s) that you build. Builder gives you complete control over your layouts whereas Flexx gives you a choice of pre-defined layouts. I almost purchased Builder, but one thing I read was that the only way you can back up sites built with Builder is with their plugin, BackUp Buddy. Great looking plugin that I plan to purchase someday, but…I wasn’t prepared to pay for both at the time. Maybe another day.
HeatMap. Great for Affiliate Marketing!
HeatMap Theme – Are you looking for a great WordPress theme for affiliate marketing? Beyond a simple theme for blogs and websites. HeatMap Theme caters to those who create a website for a niche with Adsense, affiliate product reviews, and for a squeeze page. You can use it on an unlimited number of websites, and with a variety of layouts and colors, this may be the only theme you’ll ever need!
Lots of other themes!
ThemeForest – a huge collection of themes submitted by a variety of sources. Great prices and you can see how many people have purchased a theme and see theme ratings. You can find themes for every type of website, from a basic blog to a website with plugins for real estate listings, auto listings, classified ads, yellow pages and so forth.
Rocket Theme - simply incredibly awesome themes and they even make some phpBB themes to match! Nearly all of their themes come with a number of color schemes and a ridiculous number of collapsible widget areas. Be sure to find the link that says “see all” our you’ll miss most of the themes.
Wobzy – they have some pretty unique themes here!
Catalyst – single theme with over 800 options (not free)
cssTemplateHeaven – very inexpensive. They have templates other than WordPress templates so make sure you’re looking at the right ones!
Avignet by Shape5
Theme Hybrid – free with no support, nominal yearly fee for support via forum. Some nice themes there! You need to install Hybrid core first (framework) and then choose a child theme.
Family Tree child theme by StudioPress
Free Themes
So, where do you go to find WordPress Themes that are free if you shouldn’t use Google? Check out my blog. I write about free themes that are worth talking about. You can also check out WordPress.org’s directory of themes. You can also view these themes right in your Dashboard. Go to Appearance > Themes and click on the Install Themes tab. From here you can upload themes that you have previously downloaded. You can also search for themes by keyword, view featured, newest, and recently updated themes that are in WorPress.org’s directory. If you’re using the search box, you can filter the themes by color, columns, etc.
